Just because it makes me smile!

[thereallyniceman]

 

Composed by George Gershwin in 1919  and played by Fred Van Eps in 1920.

 

SWANEE played in 1920 by Fred Van Eps

:-))

[Robert Dooley]

I used scraps from my son's outside deck project to build the ipe plectrum. Ipe is great for decking. Not so good for banjos but great fun aa woodworker. I have it strung with nylon and have hired a weight lifter to use it for training purposes.

[Robert Dooley]

Trying .020 in. For 1st and 5th which solves volumn problem but puts you almost to Chris sands medium to heavy gauge strings I think.

Robert Dooley said:

I built my first banj,o, a plectrum with Gibson parts so there is no perch pole or dowel stick just two adjustable rods. The wooden parts. were made of Ipe. the banjo plays well but is quite heavy.
I have continued to use the two rod construction on my open backs but maple is lighter and easier to work with.
Richard William Ineson said:

And don't forget the wooden damper between the perch pole/dowel stick and the vellum/head.

Jody Stecher said:

Is your string nylon or fluorocarbon? the latter is much stiffer. .011 in fishing leader with a scale (nut to bridge) several inches longer than a Tubaphone (the typical Van Eps setup) is whole nuther ballgame from typical nylon music string at a shorter scale. And don't forget a two footed bridge and maybe a hole in the head and a satellite dish/hubcap thingy in the back. For a typical Tubaphone you'd probably need literally double that diameter at .022 inches in nylon for the first and fifth strings to get average volume.  Good luck!

[Jody Stecher]

A nylon strung plectrum banjo? wow. I bet that sounds great. I've never heard that but it seems like a good idea.

Robert Dooley said:

I used scraps from my son's outside deck project to build the ipe plectrum. Ipe is great for decking. Not so good for banjos but great fun aa woodworker. I have it strung with nylon and have hired a weight lifter to use it for training purposes.