Custom Built Banjo Prices

All my banjos are intended to be one of a kind and tailor made to the individual customer, when taking a commission we can talk about the aesthetics and tonal qualities of different woods, the different attributes of tone rings, rim size, scale lengths, fretwire gauge etc, with the aim of making an instrument that suits your playing and sounds the way you want.

We can discuss this via email or if you're able to, it's always nice, and I think often very helpful, for people to drop in to the workshop, have a cuppa,  play some banjos, have a chat about what they want from the instrument and if you would like have a look through the wood room to pick out your fingerboard yourself.

Banjo Prices

Open back tenor Banjo 19 or 17 frets
£1350
Tenor Banjo with resonator
£1750
Open back five string Banjo
£1450
Five string with resonator
£1850

Standard Features

  • 10" 11" 12" or 13" rims
  • Cherry, Sapele or Maple
  • Choice of any headstock shape.
  • Dobson heel, Curved heel or boat heel
  • Two way adjustable truss rod (Accessed at heel)
  • Flecked Ebony, Pao Ferro (Santos Rosewood) or Rosewood fretboard
  • Medium or vintage style thin fret wire in Evo gold or Nickel Silver
  • Fretboard side dots, and your choice of front marker dots
  • Scoop - oval, enoch, straight or thumb String
  • Buffalo horn, Bone or Corian nut
  • Block rim construction
  • Flecked Ebony, Pao Ferro or Rosewood rim cap
  • Romero style dowel rod construction
  • Handmade Notched raw brass tension hoop
  • Rickard Ball end raw brass brackets
  • Rickard Raw brass no knot tailpiece, hooks and nuts, (choice of nut style)
  • Gotoh Raw brass planetary tuners 
  • Schaller Grand tune vintage copper tuners  (Slotted headstock)
  • Compensated cherry or maple bridge with Rosewood or Ebony cap (Fretted 5 string)
  • Renaissance head or fyberskyn head
  • Hand rubbed true oil finish

My standard scale length these days is 25.4" (645mm) with a nut width of 32mm or 33mm, although I can do any that is requested. The string spacing at the bridge is 11.5mm which is a bit wider than a factory instrument and in my opinion makes for much easier playing, especially for clawhammer.

Extra Options

Woods

Flame Maple neck and flame Maple rim
+ £85
Flame Maple neck and plain Maple rim
+ £55
Black Walnut
+ £80
Old stock Honduras and Brazilian Mahogany
+ £75
AAA grade Ebony fretboard
+ £30
Exotic figured Pao Ferro fretboard and rim cap
+ £30
Other veneers/trim
POA

Tone Rings

Integral Rosewood Tone Ring
+ £50
Integral Ebony tone ring
+ £50
Handmade round brass tone hoop
+ £50
(Handmade from 3/8 round brass rod these are 40% larger that the usual 1/4" commercially available hoops)
Bacon tone ring
+ £150
Dobson tone ring
+ £150
Dobson tone ring with 1/4" brass hoop
+ £165
Little Wonder tone ring
+ £136
Silver Bell tone ring
+ £150
Whyte Lady tone ring
+ £185
Tubaphone tone ring
+ £250

Neck

Fretless
- £100
Inlayed fret markers same as fretted
£0
Brass overlay to 5th or 7th fret
+ £50
More elaborate scoop
+ £40
Bound fretboard
+ £50
Headstock back veneer
+ £50
Double ogee
+ £50
Fretboard, headstock and heel double under veneers
+ £35

Hardware

Schaller Gold D tuners
+ £45
Rickard 10:1 High ratio tuners (tenor) Ebony or Boxwood buttons
+ £120
Rickard 10:1 High ratio tuners (5 string) Ebony or Boxwood buttons
+£150
Rickard raw brass deco tailpiece
+ £105
Extra brackets and hooks
+ POA
Wooden armrest
+ £110
Vega style armrest
+ £20

Banjo heads

Stained goat skin, also treated to protect against humidity
+ £50

Inlay

The inlay work I do is for the most part designed with the customer, it varies in whether it starts from a photo, a piece of jewelry or just an idea that I then draw up, but each one is individual to its banjo and I don't do exact reproductions of past designs.  

Inlay work
£35 per hour

Cases

Superior Hard Cases

Open back
+ £130
Brown open back
+ £130
A scale
+ £130
11" 5 string resonator
+ £130
Brown
+ £130
Open back tenor
+ £130
All Instruments that are to be sent by courier require a hard case.

Console steel guitars

Standard Model
£850

Standard Features

  • 23" Scale
  • One piece body
  • Seymour Duncan antiquity lap steel pickup or Mojo Pickups handmade Charlie Christian pickup
  • Cherry or Maple
  • Right or left handed
  • Flecked Ebony, Pao Ferro (Santos Rosewood) or Rosewood fretboard, headstock veneer and bridge/bridge plate
  • Bone, Buffalo horn or Corian nut
  • Through body string mount
  • Brass bridge cap and string mount
  • Schaller grand tune tuners
  • Flamed Maple, Black Walnut, Cherry or Rosewood binding
  • Round abalone or mother of pearl fret markers
  • Newtone lapsteel strings
  • Hand rubbed true oil finish

Extra Options

Pickups

Lollar chicago steel
+ £95
Mojo pickups aged "string through" lapsteel pickup
+ £70
Lollar horseshoe pickup
+ £485
Full details of these amazing handmade pickups can be found here
www.lollarguitars.com
www.mojopickups.co.uk

Woods

Black Walnut
+ £60
AAA grade Ebony fretboard
+ £30
Exotic figured Pao Ferro fretboard and bridge
+ £25
Other veneers/trim
POA

Inlay

Inlay work
£35 per hour

Finish

Sunburst
+ £200

More Info

The Prices for imported American and Canadian parts are adjusted to cover postage, import fees and import taxes. 

All woods are to the best of my ability sourced from responsible sources, most of theExotic hardwoods such as rosewood and ebony that I use often come from Madinter whose company mission statement can be seen here corporate.madinter.com/about-us. Occasionally I'm able to source woods such as burls direct from a tree surgeon friend.