My 4-Sting Reso Box Banjo

This was going to be a 5-String Banjo, except I used a piece of wood for the neck that turned out to be too narrow to have 5 strings with a decent amount of inter-string space. The resonator makes this instrument the loudest acoustic instrument that I have made to date. I'm sure I will be making more of these resonator instruments. This instrument features a 4th string tuner (called a 5th string tuner on 5-String banjos) made by cutting down a standard guitar tuner and drilling a new string hole. The instrument is currently tuned to a-D-A-d. Also, this instrument is chromatically fretted and to make it easier for me to play, I used gold colored fret wire for all the diatonic frets, and silver colored fret wire for all the accidental frets. So now I can play my old diatonic tunes on this chromatically fretted instrument with relative ease.
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  • That's a good looking build Rand. I've seen other 4 string banjos tuned like this but they've all been fretted diatonically. I like having the chromatic notes and great idea using different fret colors.

  • I v been wanting to make a goard banjo other projects tend put me off track
  • Thanks for the complements, guys.

    I don't feel a photo is complete without some textual comments on it.

    ==>David Piasta:

    The gold-color fret wire (brass alloy? I guess) and silver-color fret wire (probably some nickle alloy) were both purchased thru CBGitty last summer when I was in the States (be sure to order fret wire of the same size). I've done one other instrument this way (a octagonal shaped chromatic 4-stringer which I tuned to open D). Color coded frets are a good way for diatonic players to "step up" to chromatic. I wish I could find black fret wire, as that would contrast better between silver and gold (which looks the same in low light conditions).

    ==> Ben of C.B.Gitty... How about some black fret wire?!

    ==> Keith Rearick:

    Yeah I like to show build photos, but I prefer to do a complete write-up of a build (but that takes time). Will try to add an in-depth write-up of my Reso-Box builds in my discussion group "Home Made Resonator Boxes 101, v.2.0". I need to finish up the other two resonator instruments that I have in process so I can give the topic a more thorough coverage (my photo documentation is some times a bit spotty, so I'll do several builds and highlight what I find to be my "'best practices").

    -Rand.

  • Very nice build, and thanks for showing pictures of the inside. How people do things internally, is as important as what the finished product looks like.

  • Nice build...just wondering were you got the gold or brass coloured fret wire? All I have ever seen is the nickle wire.

  • Very nice build, and a good source of imformation.

  • Thanks, Rand.  I am using an unusual old pie pan and it's too late to strengthen now - and you make me wish I had done so.   Small thing in my favor is a rather large and flat surface area saddle to distribute the down force.  I hope.

  • Very nice...

  • g-D-G-B... Sounds like a good plan, Uncle John.

    Also, if you are planning to add a resonator like I did, it's a good idea to stiffen up the soundboard. Usually, with acoustic instruments they make the soundboard as thin as possible. But, with a metal resonators, the thin sound board will end up stealing some of the vibrating energy from the metal resonator, reducing sound output.

    In my case, I needed to use a thin sound board because working with hand tools, it's difficult to cut large circular holes in thicker boards. So, I had to then come back and stiffen up the soundboard by gluing on additional pieces of wood on the underside of the sound board. Here's a photo...

    306264314?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024This shot is looking through the sound box from the back-board which I had yet to install. You can see the extra "framing" I added to stiffen the sound board, as well as how I attached the neck. The "thru the box" part of the neck has to be lowered in order to provide clearance for the resonator.

    -Rand.

  • Thanks for the good info, Rand.     Huh.  Interesting saddle.  

    My neck is wide enough for a 4 strings at 1.5 inches.   But you got me thinking.    I think I will experiment with this tuning:   High G - DGB.   Yup.   Will give that a try.   I an a 3 string guy and pretty good on DGB.   That tuning will give me the high drone and simple chording and picking that I am familiar with.  

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