Homemade Cookie Tin Banjo

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I liked this story of the Cookie-Tin Banjo. I need a banjo. I've written some cool words for "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and I want to get it recorded but I don't have a banjo player that I can get into the studio right now. So my solution is to learn the banjo and play that part myself. And I don't feel like shelling out for a commercial banjo altho I have seen one that's totally delicious. So this solution seems kind of attractive in a strange way. I have several old cookie tins. I selected one and began to make plans.

The instrument detailed in that story looks about like this:

(click to enarge - I can't seem to get this stupid blog website to cooperate)

I added the little extra flair on the head. Somehow just the end of the plank trimmed down doesn't quite look as good as what luthiers are putting on instruments these days...

Then I thought about what makes a banjo. The central element is a small set of plucked strings, their effective length modified by fingers pushing them against frets. The vibrations of these strings are amplified by a drumhead, a membrane stretched over a frame. It's often an animal skin but as this story demonstrates, a piece of sheet metal also works. The amplification is simply a matter of mechanically transferring the vibrations to the drumhead; there's no real amplification where power is added.

I will be continuing this story in the following days. Stay tuned...

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