Our first banjo was "the Awesome Possum, alias Road Kill Banjo".
It
was made in the style of fretless mountain banjos. The neck is maple and the
body is heart poplar which looks very similar to walnut. The tuning pegs are
hand carved walnut and the inlay on the peg head is walnut and heart poplar.
Trisha did the scroll cut bird design on the back to which I added the shallow
bowl carving. The birch buttons, that cover the screws, are
darkened by baking in the oven.
We enlisted the aid of our community to help us
find a road kill for the skin. There
was plenty of sightings of possum and raccoon and much fun was had by all (except
the road kill) but no useable skins were turning up. I stopped for a raccoon
once but even with a clothespin on my nose couldn't get close enough to bring it
home and most road kill was beyond use (you wouldn't want the banjo to sound
flat!).
As the banjo was nearing completion, Trisha began to get
antsy about where we would find a skin so she ordered one from a music supply
house. Unfortunately, it arrived pre-stretched on a rim that was too small for
our banjo
The day the woodworking on the banjo was completed , we went for a walk with
our dogs. This particular day, we felt very energetic and took a longer walk
than usual. Near the end of the walk, about a quarter mile before our house, we
found a freshly hit possum with all of it's skin intact......just what we needed. So
we went home to get the car. No way we were carrying that thing down the
streets.
At home, because Trisha had ordered the skin instead of
trusting the universe, I insisted she skin the possum (Hee, hee, hee).
Actually it was a very interesting process which we both participated in and
would not like to repeat too often.
My next task was to scrape the skin and stretch it onto the banjo. At last it
was finished and what a beautiful sound! Now the spirit of the possum lives on
singing mountain tunes.
*Click
on a picture for a larger view*
363 Hartwood Ave Spring Hill, FL 34606