Fretless Mountain Banjo, New, Made in West Virginia!!!

I finished this one today June 21, 2026. It has a rock hard sugar maple neck with my signature V back profile which is a very old style which to me is much more comfortable than rounded back necks and as far as I know I’m the only person making them like that today. The body is from an old farmhouse in WV that was built by one of my relatives John Collins and his friend John Lynch who was a non slave owning Confederate veteran. I found Mr. Lynch’s obituary from the 1920’s and at the end it read that “he fought for the cause he believed was right until the close of the war.” I think it’s interesting to have a banjo from wood that a man handled who was willing to take up arms against his own country to stop overstepping of our laws by the federal government in his mind. 

The Aquila super nylgut 1b strings bring out a distinctly sweet but attention getting sound that will bring the player and the audience a lot of pleasure and contentment. I think the age of the wood in the body helps create a more resonant sound and all the sounds of voices and families growing up in until it was abandoned by 2003. Some of the older people in my family were afraid to go upstairs because they claimed it was haunted. In the one bedroom upstairs on the right several people had died in that bed over time and the man who they thought murdered their sister back in the early 1930’s showed up one last time as a very old man in 1968 and spent the night there before they called a taxi to come take him anywhere just away from them. I can’t imagine all the history and stories that happened there. I don’t really especially like going up old stairs that are about to fall in a place that’s haunted to rip out a board or two but I got a couple a few years ago because i figure the house will fall down anytime and the new landowner may have it demolished but the interior is nice and dry just the bottom frame is going and sides lean over some. Back to the banjo itself, it measures 36 1/4” overall length, 11” wide, 2 1/4” side height and the bridge is a comfortable 24 1/2” from the nut in the photos. The solid ebony violin pegs are set in holes reamed with a violin peg reamer and a special one for the 5th peg. The reamers cut the same angle & taper as the pegs so you get the best friction fit the more you press the peg in the tighter it gets. Same as a violin to tune but i will include a set of guidelines that explains a lot more but it’s easy to tune and play and sure to impress your friends & family. The nylgut strings do stretch and will take about two weeks to settle in but I did bring them up to standard tuning a couple of times so it will be easier. I been making these off an on for over 20 years one at a time by hand with antique tools just like you’d see at colonial Williamsburg so I got a lot of time and craftsmanship in each one probably over 90 hours. I go by the old Stanley Hicks family style of mountain banjo that you can read about in the foxfire book or catch vintage clips of on YouTube. I had a musician that lived with Stanley Hicks & Frank Proffit to approve of my banjos which to me is the greatest compliment I can get. I got banjos all over the world and in some museums. I get some musicians who are repeat customers that want banjos from different types of wood and I’d like to make you a repeat customer as well so therefore you can be assured that I do not sell junk because it would end my business sales real quickly if I did. 

I do take shipping seriously and make each custom box and use 3 different kinds of tape and bubblewraps & styrofoam peanuts. I had to raise my prices a little bit because prices of materials keep going up and these websites take their cut which seems to be going up as well. Anyways, let me know if you have any questions & thank you for reading all this!