This customer said that they liked the brown/tan spectrum of colors and appreciated knots and wormholes. The rest they left up to me. I like getting a little but of info like this but also the freedom to follow my muse when selecting wood. I am trying out a Persimmon fretboard here, which is an American wood that is in the ebony family. Even though it is lighter in color, it is very hard and sense, suitable for fretboards. The Oregon white oak rim and neck are from the Carpenter Ant stash in Portland and was likely originally milled for grandfather clocks. Some other customer requests include an arm rest, a flat fretboard and open A tuning. I like the loud but dusty sound of oak. It’s different than maple and walnut but is still a little hard for me to describe. I’ll wait and see how the customer describes it and add it to our vocabulary!

“This banjo has been such a wonderful delight! Before it arrived, I probably watched almost all the demo videos of mini five strings and looked at all the pictures, but when I opened the case I was still totally blown away by how beautifully adorable this instrument is. And, I was equally impressed by how well setup and easy to play this banjo arrived. This is probably the first instrument I’ve gotten directly from a maker that I felt didn’t need any additional setup at all. Each note rings clear, and the 8” head was plenty of room for my clumsy hands. There is plenty of volume from this banjo and the sound is a nice old time howl. The banjo has a really nice weight to it, probably because of the beautiful selected Oak wood. One of the biggest factors in choosing this banjo was the option to use Oak. My littlest child has a middle name “Oak”, and my last name is Portuguese for Oak. I felt the oak would make a nice addition to an heirloom family instrument.

Here’s my littlest one, getting a feel for the banjo!
- K. C. ”