I’m posting these photos so that they may be helpful to anyone who may be thinking about building a canjo. Here is my 2nd Canjo Build. It has a Dulcimer scale (570mm), with a .012 plain steel guitar string. The neck is 1" wide, and feels better in the hand (it doesn’t roll like the ½" did). I changed the design in order to be able to cut everything off of one piece of wood, so I wouldn’t have to glue anything to save time. Things that I will change on my next build: The head will be changed by either doing a scarf joint, a sideways tuner mount, or gluing a separate piece under the neck. As you can see on the pictures I had to add an eye screw in order to get tension so it would stay on the nut screw. I will probably also glue the tailpiece to the neck so I can lower the can more. It is hard to drill in the rings on the can. I went with a regular vegetable can because I crushed the aluminum Mountain Dew can with very little effort. With all of this said the canjo does play well, even thought I do find playing with a can in the way a bit awkward.
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Making the canjo from a single piece of wood is always a good idea - keep it simple. For my canjos I used a length of Grandis 22mm thick, as I had been given a plank of the stuff. I cut the shaft to 30mm wide. With a rounded back this sits nicely in the palm. I cut about 12mm into the head for the tuner and no screw eye is needed as the string is pulled quite tight. At the can end I cut about 8mm away to sit the can in. I always use a steel can as aluminium ones are so thin. I tend to make the scale longer at around 700mm VSL.
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Nice job there
Making the canjo from a single piece of wood is always a good idea - keep it simple. For my canjos I used a length of Grandis 22mm thick, as I had been given a plank of the stuff. I cut the shaft to 30mm wide. With a rounded back this sits nicely in the palm. I cut about 12mm into the head for the tuner and no screw eye is needed as the string is pulled quite tight. At the can end I cut about 8mm away to sit the can in. I always use a steel can as aluminium ones are so thin. I tend to make the scale longer at around 700mm VSL.
There is no doubt that a canjo is fun to play.