rudy - Posted - 12/16/2011:  08:48:16

Here's a quick shot of a new Boucher style pot that's assembled and waiting on the neck.  The raw brass bracket shoes and the nuts are shop made and there are building guides for both the shoes and the nuts located in my photos area here at the hangout.  They can be found in the "Conceptualized Boucher" folder.  

The rim is unfinished in the photo, and the raw brass tension band is "in the rough", meaning it will still be shaped, sanded, and polished.  Part of the finishing process will include patina finishing of all the raw brass components.

The little brass wrench is also shop-made and is used to adjust the 12" Renaissance head tension via the Boucher-style nuts.  Now on to the neck...

tkelsey - Posted - 12/16/2011:  10:15:11

Very nice! I especially like the brass wrench. Did you make the hooks, or did you purchase them?

Thanks for sharing the building guides on these.

stigandr5 - Posted - 12/16/2011:  10:26:19

Randy,

That's a gorgeous looking bit of hardware. Very impressive.

Nathan

bordertownbrown - Posted - 12/16/2011:  10:41:29

Very nice Randy, Thanks for all the work you are putting into this project and for  sharing it with us.

Richard

GSCarson - Posted - 12/16/2011:  10:57:13

Thanks for sharing Randy, looking great so far.  Glenn C.

BaldPaul - Posted - 12/16/2011:  11:51:25

Great work. Thanks for sharing.

rudy - Posted - 12/16/2011:  13:28:22

Thanks, all.  Hooks are standard store-bought.  The banjo is a "conceptualized Boucher" with a few modern accouterments such as the Renaissance head and commercial hooks, and I'm trying to maintain as close of a look to period as I can. 

I actually like the look of plated hooks when it contrasts with all the other patina finished hardware.  It's also a lot more difficult to successfully make the hooks; the shoes and nuts are a piece-o-cake.

There's the delemma of thread size if you want to make your own nuts.  If you don't want to stay with the standard #8-26 thread you have to go to a alternate thread size, or tap the nuts #8-26 if you purchase standard hooks.  The #8-26 die to cut standard threads is more than I'm willing to invest, plus the hooks are somewhat tricky to bend and retain any strength in the hook. Going to 8-32 for both would be an option, but it still looks a wee bit odd.  Another reason I went with standard hooks is that I wanted a reliable and strong hook because there are only 8 of them to tension the head.  The whole pot is feather-weight, even considering it uses a 1/2" laminated walnut rim rather than the standard Boucher 1/4" single ply oak rim.

uncle.fogey - Posted - 12/16/2011:  14:17:36

Rudy,

That's very cool - how many hooks?

I have totally given up on the 8/26 - granted, kicking and screaming, but I'm done with it now.  Good for you if you have those taps and dies - I don't, and can't get them.

I had never heard of a "Boucher" The beauty of this hangout is that we can share ideas and learn - you are one of the most generous and knowledgeable people on this forum.

Thanks,

Ken

Castania - Posted - 12/16/2011:  15:06:51

Randy - please do let us hear it when you're done.  I love the sound of the old banjos, and would like to see how close to that a modern take can get.

Or, was sound the primary goal?  Were you going more for the "look" and figured the sound would come out where it came out?

Ken

rudy - Posted - 12/16/2011:  19:04:26

Ken & Ken,  Eight hooks total.  I spent an entire day making the bracket shoes and nuts, but it's a bunch of fun and they look most cool.  They are a fair copy of one of Boucher's last designs, henceforth the use of the square tapered nuts.  

Although I'm using a Renaissance head, I'm joining others who rabidly pursue Minstrel banjo in succombing to a modern synthetic head and Nylgut Minstrel strings and low tuning.  It's not going to sound as good as a hide, but low tension combined with Nylguts should result in a close approximation to the real thing.  If you want to hear examples of Minstel banjo just jump over to the "Groups" area here on the hangout and sample some of the excellent videos from Tim Twiss and Greg Adams, among others:

banjohangout.org/group/minstrelbanjo

This particular project came about after I saw several inquiries over time from folks inquiring about the existence of a Boucher plan and not getting any satisfactory answers.  I compiled all of the information that I could find on the web to come up with the conceptualized version.  Of particular value is the on-line "Banjo Sightings" database with lots of photos and pages and pages of measured dimensions for these instruments.  What a resource! 

banjodatabase.org/

Hopefully I can contribute in a small way to popularizing this type of instrument, or at least make it easier for the home shop craftsman to re-create one.

Boucher banjos came in a bunch of flavors, but there are certain stylistic elements that are found in most of the extant instruments.  The single or double ogee finger board and beehive accented scroll peg head are the most common points.  Everything else is up for grabs as far as pot size, scale length, and especially head tensioning design and hardware.  Boucher is widely credited with being the first to use a tensioned design of any type on a banjo.  He was already in the drum business, and the first wing nut tensioned designs on his banjos were a natural extension of the drum tensioning designs.

Read more here:

bluestemstrings.com/pageBoucher1.html

Edited by - rudy on 12/16/2011 19:08:52

Sultans of Claw - Posted - 12/16/2011:  19:55:59

Looking forward to pics of the finished instrument. Looks to be pretty sharp as always.

rudy - Posted - 12/17/2011:  12:52:54

quote:

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Originally posted by Sultans of Claw



Looking forward to pics of the finished instrument. Looks to be pretty sharp as always.

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 Thanks Lee.  I've got over 200 photos shot of just the pot construction process, here's a better picture of the shoe and nut assembly: