Prust Handmade Minstrel Banjo

This banjo was hand made by Eric Prust of Sequim WA.  It was a special order and I think the first Eric did with fret marker inlays, which are well done and accurate.  I bought this from another Reverb seller and used it very lightly for a few months. I'm not really much of a banjo player so it was a fun introduction to banjos, but I'm ready to move on to the next toy :)

One thing to note is the action on this has gone really low over the last year as it's just been sitting around, making it hard or impossible to play. I bet someone who understands these instruments could fix it up, but I am not sure what to do.

The banjo is in the style of William Boucher of Baltimore, roughly 1845 to 1850.  It is fretless, what looks like frets are well done inlays to aid in proper fingering.  The Boucher touches are the reversed F headstock, which was also used on the earliest Martin guitars, and the double ogee pattern above the 5th string tuner.  The tuners are fiddle style, not that bad to work with, just use a little rosin.  T

he large drum (about 14 inches) is oak with a natural calf skin.  The neck I think is a hard maple, with some nice waviness.  The bridge has two sets of indents; the original for narrower play, and a wider set to match my primary stage banjo. The strings are not gut, they are Aquila, a type of synthetic string that looks and sounds like gut, and these are sized for a lower tuning than modern, usually D or E.  If you want to tune it modern nylon would work fine on this, but don’t use steel. The only noticeable deviation from authenticity is the stainless steel hardware, but it works well and is easily adjustable with a modern wrench.

Included is a $30 gig bag. Check the video to see what this instrument sounds and looks like - the video is from the original seller.

Originally priced at $375 + 50 shipping, yours for only $325 free shipping!