rudy - Posted - 01/26/2012:  13:33:03

Hi All,

My latest side project has been completed, a Boucher Style Early Minstrel Banjo.  I don’t normally make this style of banjo, but I wanted to do one as an excuse to do a CAD plan as I had seen several posts asking as to the availability of any information and/or drawings of the Boucher style banjo.  I won’t present all of the details here, as the information is all available at the website link. I’m going to post a few other audio clips of the banjo when I get a chance, but that might be a little while so I wanted to get this information posted.

 As far as the banjo details, it features a 12” Renaissance medium crown head, shop made bracket shoes, nuts, tension band, and custom wrench to adjust head tension, all indigenous American walnut construction with the exception of high quality ebony violin pegs, Boucher double Ogee finger board, Boucher style scroll peg head with beehive finial (no lathe work, either…), lightweight cherry two-footed bridge, walnut three ply tailpiece, Nylgut Minstrel strings, and Tru-oil finish.  It is designed with a 26” scale, but the plan also details a shorter 24” scale neck if it is desired to have a shorter scale.

 Scale on a fretless?  Yes, as there is evidence that Boucher desired to standardize his double ogee design to reflect note positions, so this banjo is designed using specific ogee points based on a given scale length.  More about that at the website, but I didn’t want to get too verbose here.

 At the present time I have the complete pdf available as a free download, as well as full size templates for the peg head, tailpiece, and bridge.  I’m hoping to keep all of this available, but it’s a bit problematic to deal with providing for the 140 Megabytes of data that gets downloaded from my website on a daily basis.  I know from watching how many times this particular page gets accessed that it will add considerably to the 140 Megs.

 Here is the link to my website page with all of the gory details:

bluestemstrings.com/pageBoucher1.html

A few more photos:

Edited by - rudy on 01/26/2012 13:37:55

Tail piece	Heel to pot junction rear	Peg head rear	Ogee rear
Peg head	Ogee front	Scoop area	End of pot view
Front view of pot

Nuts - Posted - 01/26/2012:  13:51:42

Very nice Randy! I really like the hardware you made and the patina you gave it.

I'm just a bit curious though why you opted for a plastic head on your period instrument instead of skin. Central Illinois humidity?

Jason Wilkerson - Posted - 01/26/2012:  14:03:16

Sweet lookin banjo...can we hear it?

rudy - Posted - 01/26/2012:  14:20:00

Hi Paul, This for the building guide:

"The instrument is finished off with a 12” Remo Renaissance medium crown head and Aquila Nylgut Minstrel synthetic strings, both available from Elderly Instruments or other on-line suppliers.  The synthetic head and strings make it easier to implement the construction for the neophyte builder, as well as providing increased tuning and head tension stability, especially if the instrument is used in outdoor settings as might be found at civil war or other historic reenactments."

Jason, There is a some audio on the YouTube video link.  I'll get more up on my site but it might be a bit. 

rudy - Posted - 01/26/2012:  14:40:43

I uploaded a quick sample to the Hangout storage as "Boucher Sample":

banjohangout.org/myhangout/mus...p?id=3035# 

banjered - Posted - 01/26/2012:  16:02:00

WOW! BEAUTIFUL! WANT! Banjered

Shawn Hoover - Posted - 01/26/2012:  17:48:11

Beautiful banjo, rudy, and a great job putting the whole project together for posterity. All that walnut, the custom hardware, the finish, it's all stunning. I am firmly NOT in the market for a new banjo project, but it's tempting to buy the guide just to see how to laminate rims rudy-style!

RG - Posted - 01/26/2012:  18:12:28

That's a great looking banjo Rudy, awesome work...as usual for you!  Thanks for posting...

rudy - Posted - 01/27/2012:  09:54:18

Thanks guys & gals.  Hopefully I'll get a few more folks creative juices flowing before this topic fades into obscurity!

Jonnycake White - Posted - 01/27/2012:  12:50:26

Very nice, Randy. Great workmaship.

For those who want to use a genuine hide head, nothing is stopping you. If you can make a tension hoop, you can surely make a flesh hoop.

rudy - Posted - 01/28/2012:  13:46:05

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jonnycake White



Very nice, Randy. Great workmaship.



For those who want to use a genuine hide head, nothing is stopping you. If you can make a tension hoop, you can surely make a flesh hoop.

---

 Thanks, Jon.  I believe this is (believe it or not...) the FIRST banjo that I've built that has absolutely no peripheral or direct association with your WFret program!

For those of you who don't know, Jon is the creator of the original WFret computer program that calculates fret locations in hundredths or fractions of an inch, allows input of any number of frets, ANY scale length you can think of, performs the math by a couple different "standard" calculation methods, provides you with a printed result that can be copied to your clipboard and imported into any document you desire, AND prints out an accurate template so you can lay out fret (or flush fret) positions on your work without even touching a ruler!

If you're building fretted instruments of any type you owe it to yourself to track it down and use it.  There are other web-based programs out there, but none as useful and it doesn't even require JAVA script!

 It wouldn't hurt to give Jon a shout out of thanks, too.

WFret was "instrumental" in the building of many banjos, mando family instruments, guitars, and more lap steels than I can count up.  WFret was also used extensively to calculate all of the reference dimensions present on all of the CAD prints and drawings that are at my website.