Here's what happens when you have a spare banjo mandolin neck, funky banjo ukulele parts, and a little free time. The cigar box is of the Mexican cedar type. The neck is a maple one, c.1920s. The "resonator" metal faceplate is actually a c.1920s banjo uke resonator. No worries! These parts were all from destroyed specimens.
After setup, this thing plays beautifully. It's rather quiet acoustically but I have a K&K big shot on the underside of the top and that pumps out a loud, smooth acoustic resonator mandolin tone to amp, mixer board, PA, what-have-you. This thing sustains for eons. I'm very tempted to install a magnetic pickup at the end of the fretboard.
15 frets, with the extension sawed down a couple frets. I refretted the whole neck as this one was sitting around in my parts bin for exactly that reason... the frets were toast. The hilarity is that all these frets were leftover snippets from other projects.
"By appointment to the King." Been saving this old furniture label for a while now.
Simple maple bridge. I might swap out to either an adjustable or an ebony one at some point.
Grungy tuners work just fine.
The box actually opens easily to access the pickup jack, etc., and store a few cigars if'n you like. The little screw with the washer below the heel keeps it closed.
And here you can see the jack, re-used broken (and cut down) banjo tailpiece, and my hardware-store style strap button.
0 Comments