this kind of craftsmanship is amazing. i hope that your videos inspire many more to create something amazing like you've made

its so chiill to listen, and watch you working. + super interesting to hear about a topic i dont know shit about

gorgeous looking and sounding banjo Ben. love your honesty

muy buenos banjos, saludos desde Chile. great Job !

Great job man. Had fun watching.

Gorgeous!

Awesome work

Great work on the banjo! I have recently started making a banjo of my own, and a tuning peg video would be incredibly helpful. I think that I've found a way to make and fit them, but a video showing your process would help.

I'm watching your videos while I'm in the Philippines! I always love your work, Ben. We need to hang out again when I get back to the States.

@bengreco

6 күн бұрын

Oh wow that's funny timing, I literally just texted you like 20 mins ago but it probably didn't go through. I'll have to try whatsapp or something. Hope you're having a good time in the Philippines, we'll defintiely get together when you're back

I have a double car garage full of power tools that seemingly exist just to force me to park my cars in the driveway. You do great work with only a handful of tools. Your client should be very happy.

@bengreco

6 күн бұрын

thanks! haha yeah, I've got all the tools I need now to do the one specialized thing that I do, and it's a good thing because I'm about at my max in terms of storage space

Applewood is real pretty. Still got the trunk of my parent's old appletree in storage and I don't dare touch till I'm good enough on the shitwood I'm practising on xD

Wow that's an amazing sound. Might have to get one of your banjos one day.

That banjo is beautiful! I'm looking forward to a video about making tuning pegs. I've got a stash of fiddle pegs I bought on etsy, but they aren't going to last forever.

@bengreco

8 күн бұрын

thanks! yeah hope to find the time to make that soon, the video will go into a lot of detail and tips about installing pegs too, so it'll be helpful for installing pre-made friction pegs as well as making them from scratch

Thanks Ben, I enjoyed it!

I like the way you say “cherry burl” boy

Do you think there's any aspects to building a gourd banjo like this that aren't really doable with basic hand tools? I have absolutely no (usable) power tools past basic drills, but would love to attempt something like this myself because Gourd banjos are very hard to come by in England. I was thinking for the neck I could hand saw the basic block shape and carve the rest by hand, but I'm wondering if any aspects of the build would be close to impossible without power tools or if it's just extra work. I'd love if you did a more detailed banjo build video one day, small things like how you cut and attach the neck firmly and stuff seems like the most daunting and tricky part of the build. The rest seems fairly accessible and doable (I hope). Edit; Also how do you come up with sizing's for everything, like the neck length and width, etc? if you ever get the opportunity to note down measurements that'd be awesome.

Do the gourds ever deteriorate? Or is the instrument good to play indefinitely?

@bengreco

8 күн бұрын

the gourd is similar to a soft wood, so as long as it's taken care of it should last indefinitely, and with the fiberglass inside and shellacked outside, it's very durable

@Orourkebanjo

8 күн бұрын

@@bengrecohow steep is the learning curve with regards to building a very basic fret less banjo? I have a woodworking bench, but I’ve never done anything close to it. Where would you recommend to start in terms of study material?

I have the same bubble stick

@bengreco

6 сағат бұрын

it's a good one, I got mine from a guy named Paul on a job I worked a few years ago