12/7/2012 - Banjo Network Exchange of Information...

The community of Dynaflow Banjo builders is quite small, as far as we can tell.  Perhaps the most knowledgeable is Chris Dean, whom we cite as our inspiration for undertaking this project in the first place.  This week, we had an exchange with Chris through his blog:

1. Chris,
   Two friends and I have acquired the hard-to-find turbine rings and are building banjos inspired by your Website. We have a few questions:
   1. How did you fasten your neck to the turbine ring?
   2. How many clamps did you use to pull down on the tensioner ring?
   3. Where did you get your head? Did you special order it to a certain diameter? How about the ring that the leather fastens to. Did you buy the head with that ring already in place or did you buy just the leather and separate rings?
   Inquiring minds want to know. We want to stick to the spirit of Jenes Cottrel. Thanks for any help you can give.
   Bob Mead said this on December 5, 2012 at 11:43 am | Reply
   • Hey Bob,
     Sorry for my untimely response. I wasn’t receiving notifications for the blog.
     For the neck fastening, I build the neck with a dowel instead of coordinator rods. So i cut out a square hole of one end for the dowel stick to go through, and drilled a hole on the other end for the tailpiece screw to connect intil the end of the dowel stick.
     For the hooks, I think i used 26. I took a 12″ tension hoop, cut it down and brazed it. But i haven’t done that with the other torques i’ve made. Now I do my own hoops. However the hooks don’t matter much you could go with 24 or less or more even. Jenes would do that. I someone wanted to pay $85 instead of $90 he would build it with less hooks.
     I ordered the head from elderly music. it’s 11 5/8″ and is almost always back ordered. It took me 6 months for the last. They are really the only ones that carrry wierd sizes. You could also try an 11 1/2′ renaissance head, because they typically run a littl big.
     If you have any more questions send them my way.
     -Chris
     christobal302 said this on December 6, 2012 at 12:21 pm | Reply
     
     

I still marvel at the way the Internet has brought us together!