The Banjo that Butch Built.

As a preschooler I loved for my mom to read "The House that Jack Built," so I titled this posting "The Banjo that Butch Built."  As a college student, I couldn't afford an expensive banjo, so I got the idea of building myself a nice quality banjo.  But it was a few years later, after I was married and started having kids that I finally got around to it.  I was inspired by the instructions to build a banjo that are found in Earl Scruggs

I bought the fret wire from Elderly Instruments.  I designed the pearl inlays.

I found a used tone ring at a local junk store (no longer in business).  I got lucky.  It has a great sound.  The other metal parts came from Elderly Instruments.

The body of the banjo is out of multiple woods and crossed with veneers similar to what is illustrated in the Earl Scruggs book.

Clear mylar heads are pretty common on banjos now.  Got mine from Elderly Instruments.

A man in my hometown (Newton, NC) helped me get started by giving me some curly maple and showing me HOW to put a rod in the neck of an instrument to apply tension to offset the tension of the strings.

The back is curly maple inlayed with various other woods.

The neck is two pieces of curly maple with 3 layers of veneer between to make the stripes on the back of the neck.