I just want to share my experience with a banjo I constructed from parts.
The neck is Goldtone BG Mini neck, 20" scale, 1.25" at the nut. I bought the pot off eBay for $100. It is 11" with an unknown simple tone ring (I never took the head off to look), 24 hooks, some sort of basic Remo head. Drew Jones in Seattle fit the neck to the pot. IStrings are Deering Julia Bell tuned to open A, or double D.
First, I love the tone of this banjo playing clawhammer. Second, the neck fits my hands. I'm 5'8" and I think my hands are kind of normal size. I'm playing almost exclusively in the first position but found the stretch to even reach the fifth fret with my little finger to be too much on a full scale banjo. This banjo has opened up possibilities that were just not possible before. And there is the bonus of having a banjo that travels better than a full scale. The one improvements I would like is a little wider, and scooped, neck (should I ever have a fully custom-built banjo made).
Robert
1&1/4” is fairly normal width. Maybe you could replace the nut and creep the first and fourth strings a little closer to the edge and do the same with the 5th string. You may even get some nylons on there.
Congratulations! That size is comfortable. I'm 6 feet tall and have fun playing that size instrument. How do I know? I just bought a C scale banjo, as he calls it, for my wife's birthday! It's from Zachary Hoyt, who is a nice person to deal with. It's a 10" rim, 20" scale, Nylgut strings, 1 3/8 nut width. It comes with steel strings, but he was happy to accommodate us. It's as good quality as most banjos that I've played and reasonably priced. I'm mentioning this because it was a great experience and I didn't know this size existed. My wife loves it and has started to play more already.
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