Plantation Banza finished

Ive fitted some strings on the Banza. I am very pleasantly surprised by its tone. It goes against all the rules of banjo making - string action, neck angle, headstock angle, nut material - and yet it sounds great. working from images of the Haitian Banza mine also has no nut, just some leather chord tying the strings down. The action height is huge due to the shape of the gourd. Its makes playing a little tricky but once you get used to it and accept its limitations its actually a lot of fun to play. Ive also used some left over strings to tie around the neck in place of frets. They work great as position markers and can be moved to suit. Future plans are to fit real gut strings. I also have another similar shaped gourd drying out so I plan on building another but i'll try to get thection down a touch.

#earlybanjo #banza