This is the second banjo I made using Australian Gum (with bees wing figure) for the neck. I like the scale length of 26 inches, so I used that again. I had bought a fretless banjo from Wyatt Fawley that had the squarish headstock shape, and I really took to that, and made my first banjo with that shape. I came back to that shape with this banjo, and I really like the fullness and gracefulness of it. I jumped back to my celestial themes again, and put a nice little falling star there on the peghead. I used some pearl that has this reddish tint to put next to the star to indicated the heat generated (I'm not a physicist, tho!). Now, I did not want to use the ebony fingerboard on this one because I wanted to emphasize the grain in the wood - which complements the headstock shape. The other design change on this banjo is the oak dowel stick. I did this to experiment on a design for a banjo that I will teach people to build at a workshop - with a jig it can done be faster and more accurate. After these photos were taken, I cut a large moon and some large stars onto the gourd. But before I did this, I recorded myself - and excuse my weak musicianship - playing Leather Breeches. Then after cutting the holes, I recorded it again, about 2 hours later. You can hear the different recordings below.

This one now belongs to Cliff Drane.

Listen to this banjo: dh_LeatherBreeches_holes_hyatt.mp3