Wayne Shrubsall

Well, I give most of the credit for this "Artist to Builder" relationship to my son Nate. Nate spent the summer of 2006 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Working at a coffee shop and playing music with Steve Smith, Wayne Shrubsall, and sitting in from time to time with the band "Hard Road", made for a wonderful summer. Nate took some clawhammer lessons with Wayne and that gave Wayne a chance to spend time playing Nate's banjo. Now called the "Blue Dragon" and built by Nate's Dad of course. That led to some emails and phone calls and a new banjo for Wayne Shrubsall.

Wayne and I talked about how he was going to use this banjo and what my favorite features were in a banjo. That jointed together into a new banjo for Wayne. It has my new favorite peghead shape, the Bug Tussle. My favorite inlay in the form of a Girl Playing Banjo under a Full Moon. The neck is a beautiful lightly rippled piece of Cherry.

I have some great Cherry neck blanks tucked away in the shop. I laminated the Cherry with Purpleheart/Cherry/Padauk veneers with a select Cherry center strip. A Macassar Ebony Fingerboard and Peghead Overlay with Purpleheart/Cherry/Padauk veneers underneath, 25 1/2" scale, double action truss rod, Texas Scoop with 17 full frets and two partial frets, for a total of 19, finish off the neck. Waverly 2-Band tuners with Ivoroid buttons and a matching Waverly Planetary 5th string tuner.

The rim is a special prize of Select Curly Maple that is a different color tone in each of the two plys, 12" x 1/2" x 3 1/4" tall. Both the neck and rim were finished natural. The rim has a 12" Electric (Whyte Laydie) tone ring and bracket band. The custom made bracket band and notched tension hoop are both cut for 14 hooks. Custom ball lugs set off the package. The head is a Renaissance head, it has a No-Knot tailpiece and my standard issue Elixir Medium Strings.

It was sent snuggly away in a TKL Professional Arch-top case.