Jim Morris took the "Gus Cannon Banjo Challenge" and knocked it outta the park!

A week ago, I posted an excerpt from Samuel Charter's book, Country Blues where he described the very first banjo played by jug band icon, Gus Cannon:

He loved music and wanted to learn how to play the banjo, so he made himself one out of a bread pan that his mother gave him and a guitar neck.  He put the guitar neck through holes in the side of the dough pan, then covered the pan with a raccoon skin, scraped thin.

A lot of country boys made their own banjos this way.  The only unsatisfactory aspect was that there were no elaborate drumhead arrangements, with bolts and screws to keep the skin head tight in damp weather.  Cannon always traveled with his pockets full of crumpled newspaper, and before he was going to play, he would make a fire with the paper and hold the banjo over the heat until the head was tight enough to play.

I then challenged you all to recreate the banjo in order to explore this history even deeper.  (See the article here.)  Cigar Box Nation "power member," Jim Morris of Springfield, WV took that challenge and brought the banjo to life, using the above description along with some other information he had on Gus Cannon. 

Let's start with the finished product:  Here's Morris performing Gus Cannon's "Minglewood Blues" on the banjo.

Notes:  Morris starts out by stretching the banjo head with burning paper, just like Cannon.  He also chose to perform the song as a slide banjo tune, just as Cannon originally played it!

Here's his photos and notes on the build:

"Several other sources state that he made the banjo from either a frying pan or a bedpan with the coon skin stretched on it. Either of those would most likely be round and I'm guessing he told the story, or it got re-told, a little differently each time. Either way I'm curious to see what builds come from this! I'm going with frying pan and skin of undisclosed animal since that's what I have on hand.

"Shane's book says Gus used a bread pan for his first banjo. Other sources say bed pan and Wikipedia says frying pan. This is what I used."

Frying pan for the Gus Cannon banjo
"I cut the handle off with a hacksaw and that gave me an opening for the neck extension."
The Gus Cannon bread/frying pan banjo build
"My original neck idea with the animal skin. It's not raccoon but it was given to me by a friend who's an avid trapper. Suffice to say it's a mammal of some type."
The Gus Cannon bread/frying pan banjo build
"I discarded my original neck idea when I saw in the text that Gus had used a guitar neck."
The Gus Cannon bread/frying pan banjo build
"That's the neck from a Harmony Caribbean. I hope I didn't sacrifice a neck that's worth a ton of money to collectors."
The Gus Cannon bread/frying pan banjo build

I'm not sure what method Gus would've used to attach the skin. I went with self tapping screws.

The Gus Cannon bread/frying pan banjo build
Great job, Jim!  You made a forgotten piece of history come alive again.  That's the magic of these instruments... they're like time machines that can take you back in time.
-shane

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Why am I not surprised how good this sounds. Thanks Shane for posting I would of missed this.

Thanks RTZ. I likely wouldn't have made this except for Shane's challenge.

Wowsers. That thing sounds amazing. This homemade game never ceases to amaze me. When I've looked at factory made banjo prices to buy they're usually out of my current price range being around the £150 mark. You've yet again proved that these things can not only be made but can look and sound amazing too. I'd like to see the factories try and beat this for looks and character! Thanks for sharing this with us and inspiring us too. 

Thanks Dani and Bear. Who would want a new, shiny factory banjo when you can make one from a crusty old frying pan that still smells of bacon? This one cost me 3 US dollars (for strings) to make but that's because I had all the stuff already in my shop. If I had to buy the skin the price would have zoomed up to 23 dollars. Old frying pans and necks off old broken guitars are usually pretty easy to find for almost nothing so have a go at it! Or, you could try this free alternate for a banjo head.

https://youtu.be/M5XBbv_A27c

Wow. Wel I've got a guitar neck off an electric guitar and one off an acoustic just sitting amongst my wood pile already. I've got all manner of different wooden and metal bowls in different sizes too. That plastic idea is just genius so you know what? I reckon I'm fixing to have me a banjo real quick! Thanks very much Jim. Now, I wonder if I can use Dani's hairdryer since I don't have a heatgun? Only one way to find out! Woohoo. Thanks again Jim. Much appreciated. 

A hairdryer will work! It's what I used before getting a heat gun. Try the high setting and maybe a bit closer than with the heat gun.

I bought a heatgun on the fleamarket yesterday and some tacks too. Couldn't find any plastic big enough for my bowls of the right kind though. I don't think we have three-litre drinks bottles any more, or I couldn't find any, so I'm going to have to buy a massive carrot cake that I saw. $15! Bye bye diet haha. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for your help so far Jim.

Good luck! Call some friends to help eat that cake. 2 litre bottles work well on small wooden salad bowls which can be inserted in a larger body as in the old style mountain banjos. Something like this.

Great job Jim!

Thanks JD

Hey Shane,Ben and anybody else interested, you've got to check out the utube comment I received from noted banjo historian and author Tony Thomas. He's pretty much a Gus Cannon expert but me, being me, responded with a rebuttal. Here's his scholarly comment. For my rebuttal view the vid on utube.

Tony Thomas
1 month ago
Nice music but it has NOTHING to do with how Cannon played Minglewood blues. The story about the banjo made from his mother's biscuit pan and tightening the head with a flame was about a banjo Cannon acquired when he was 12 or 13 and may not be true at all as it conflicts with his and his mother's location at the time and his family's insistence that he play fiddle not banjo.Byt the time he was 14 or 15 his brother wByon a professionally made banjo in card in craps game. He recorded the Minglewood Blues when he was 42. Cannon made only one recordiung using slide. His commentary on using slide on a banjo is that he found it too much of a mess for his working banjo playing because he had to unwind the strings put coins under the banjo bride, tighten and tune the strings, and then undo all of that to play in the standard tuning that he preferred the drop C tuning of now associated with classic banjo. The Minglewood blues like most of Cannons 1927-30 recordings was done in the standard tuning of drop c and done oplaying in what is properly called the guitar banjo style, now inaccurately called classic banjo, it is normally played as a three finger style, but Cannon played with four fingers, using the normal assignment system used in classic banjo.He tended the maximum bracket type banjos prevelant in the early 20th century. One banjo we have identified he used during that period is a Van Eps Recording banjo, a banjo that even with nylon or gut strings sounds as lloud as a howitzer!Cannon said he tried using a pick but he broke the picks because played so hard, and never considered any kind of plectrum banjo playing because he felt he could do the same thing using his fingers. He did confess he once bought a tenor banjo but decided not to learn to play it but continue with the style he developed.
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CapnsKustomWorks
Capns

Just Fantabulous,brother.I have some ideas bout a bunnt pan I have sittin around now.

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