Introducing the Snowbird Barn Owl

I’ve been planning to introduce another model to the line, which makes it easy for people to order either as an individual or as a music store, but I wasn’t exactly sure when the best time was. I’m still only producing a few banjos a year (especially this year due to personal life obligations cutting down my building time). But after having a custom banjo order back out of their order, I have a banjo to sell on my website now!

I decided to create this new Model around this banjo because it’s a great design that a lot of Old-Time players like. This particular banjo does not have my trademark Owl on the headstock (part of the custom order) but as of this writing, I think the Owl will be a standard feature. Also, this banjo features my first ever installation of Richlite fretboard materials, which I have discovered that I do not like working and will probably only use it upon request. All of the rest of the banjo features will remain the same.

So here’s the specifications of this new banjo model:

Neck

The neck is comprised of the standard 7 piece design which includes Walnut as the primary wood with veneers of ebony and strips of Maple. The fretboard is made of Richlite on this banjo, but future banjos will have ebony most likely or some other “black colored” fretboard. The Ivoroid celluloid bound fretboard is a 26.25″ old-time scale length and in the fretboard is inlaid dots and a star for place markers. The head stock is the standard Snowbird banjo head stock design. The tuners are Nickel plated Gotoh Tuners.

Rim

The Rim is an 11″ or 12″ three ply steam bent rim with a rolled brass tone ring. The Nickel hardware are Made in the USA. The double pointed, L style bracket shoe is considered to be the strongest bracket shoe style, allowing for great tension without any “lift” on the bottom of the shoe. The head will come standard with the Elite Amber heads.

Finish

The finish is one of the key component differences. The Barn Owl has zero stain. It is clear coated with General Finishes Resin based gloss finish.

This banjo has a great tone perfect for playing behind a fiddler! As of this Post, this Banjo is for sale, you can find it HERE in the Products page.