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Hi, here is a project that I procrastinated about for some time since it meant changing a vintage instrument. Do I, or don’t I?
The banjo in question is a Bacon Banjo-Mandolin. I have had is for about 30 years and put a new head on it back then. I had tried to sell it many times but no luck. It was not something I wanted to play either.
I wanted to build a Minstrel banjo after I had a query, just for the experience, so what I did was to build my own neck for the Bacon pot. This way I would not be losing a vintage instrument as I plan to keep the old neck with the new banjo, and if I sold the Minstrel banjo the mandolin banjo neck would go with it. The pot is unchanged in any way it would just be a case of swapping back to the original neck, tailpiece and bridge as I have used the original neck fittings to fit the 5-string neck.
Anyway, here is the partly finished banjo, I had only photos to work from [that’s how I built my very first instrument, a mandolin].
It is of course fretless, will have nylon strings and the style neck of Mistral Banjos.
Cheers Taff

This how it started out circa 1930

The pot is smaller than should be.

Neck is Tasmanian Oak and silky Oak from an old bed head.