BRC Activities

Having plied the lake waters behind his workshop with a sailboat and windsurfer, the BRC craftsman is a reader of  historical fiction and eye witness accounts of adventures and mishaps on the high seas. One such astonishing narrative, the “Endurance: Shackleton`s Incredible Voyage” involved a banjo. During the ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton`s three-masted ship the Endurance became fatally trapped in crushing ice.  As the crew abandoned ship, each sailor was allowed to bring only 2 pounds of personal possessions to face the brutal survivalist ordeal ahead.

The only exception to this injunction pertained to  the ship`s meteorologist Leonard Hussey (below) and his 12 pound Windsor zither banjo. Knowing cruel  trials would be faced by all in the hostile ice cap environment, Shackelton pointedly advised the banjo owner to bring the instrument along as, “It`s vital mental medicine, and we shall need it.”

While the marooned shipmates struggled for months to survive in harsh glacial environs not dissimilar to a year-round polar vortex,  Hussey entertained them with his banjo and morale-raising sing alongs.  Crew members keeping journals recorded, the “…banjo does, as Sir Ernest said, supply brain food,” and another grateful shipmate praised “…Hussey`s indispensable banjo.”  One mirthful wag reported, “Hussey is at present tormenting (us) with his six known tunes on his banjo.” With Shackelton`s determined and indefatigable leadership, the stuff of legends, the entire crew was eventually and miraculously rescued.

Located  in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, the Windsor banjo factory manufactured thousands of banjos over its lifetime until it was destroyed during World War II by an air raid in 1940. Hussey eventually donated his banjo, signed by all the crew,  to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. In 2013, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, the Great British Banjo Company was founded and launched its commemorative “Shackleton Banjo” model which became a runaway best seller.

From the BRC: Be safe, be well, be vaccinated.

Vintage banjos from yesteryear feature a friction type non geared 5th string tuning peg with a 1:1 ratio as seen in this original nickel-plated tuner on a Vega Martin VIP-5 banjo manufactured in 1975. Some collectors prefer to leave these original parts in place to sustain the value of a classic instrument.

As seen in this 1994 gold-plated Stelling “Masterflower” 5-stringer, modern banjos come routinely out-fitted with a 5th peg bearing a rounded gear box with fine-tuning ratios.

In his workshop experience of installing modern geared 5th string tuning pegs, the BRC founder has encountered a couple of banjos in which it was discovered that the truss rod within the interior of the neck was oddly positioned and blocked proper seating of a contemporary tuner. When inserting a newer tuning device, the BRC craftsman prefers that the rim of its rounded gear box sits firmly on the outward slope of the neck at the fifth fret. This facilitates the geared tuner to be stable and snugly secured in the peg hole which has been lined with a mix of wood glue and sawdust. Rubber band compression protects its alignment during an overnight drying phase.

On the rare occasion when the truss rod preempts proper seating of the new tuning peg, the BRC founder fashions a wooden collar to act as a spacer and stabilize the replacement tuner. Shaped somewhat like a signet ring, this collar is constructed by stacking thin layers (about 1.8 mm thick) of maple veneer united with wood glue. The buttressed “Show-Me” ring is then gently sculpted with sand paper.

The above vintage 1968-69 Baldwin C banjo originally came from the factory with an old fashioned 1:1 ratio friction 5th tuner, but the truss rod location prevented proper seating of a replacement geared tuning peg. The Show-Me collar was installed to stabilize the new 5th string tuner and is hardly visible to the viewer.

On the underside of the Baldwin C neck, the buttress of the ringed Show-Me collar is barely detectable to the eyes of the musician and does not interfere with musicianship.

The above banjos are part of his antique and active instrument collection, and the BRC founder wishes all our readers to be safe and be well. Peace.

Living in far flung corners of the US, the BRC Executive Committee held its annual meeting by conference call  this year to avoid travel expenses. Old Business included analyzing the perennial financial shortfalls of the workshop which operates at a deficit of $125 per month.

From Texas, the CFO predicted the fiscal future of the enterprise as foggy, and no fiduciary strategies were promulgated to rectify the chronically negative revenue stream.  The Senior Vice-President of Sales moved to refer this thorny agenda item to a subcommittee , and the ex officio member from the Board of Directors volunteered to chair the subcommittee. The motion was so amended and approved .

Under New Business, our CEO in Chicago updated the Committee on his utopian “Banjotropolis”” societal vision for a futuristic City on the Hill. He offered his own recent photo documenting that banjo graffiti was beginning to appear on street light utility boxes on Main Street, Hometown, USA.

During the subsequent hot chocolate break, the CEO performed a song for the Committee that he penned to celebrate his magnum opus and its emerging art form heralding a banjo culture as alluded to in his first  BRC website post of May 08, 2011 (for song video click IMG 7611 link).

IMG_7611             (Ed.) Impressive….

In his report on Research and Development, our Director of R&D in Missouri encouraged all members of the Committee to closely reevaluate the clawhammer style of picking the banjo, as a studied assessment  of this technique had stirred his thinking in new directions of growth.

He confessed that his imagination was so fired by this focused  examination of frailing, that he even dreams now of banjos at nap time and wakes up marvelously  refreshed.

As there was no other business, the meeting was adjourned by acclamation. While the Executive Committee officers returned to their respective family circles to prepare for Thanksgiving, the ex officio Board member closely studied clawhammering as recommended by her cousin (click below trim2 video link).

P.S. trim2             (Ed.) Kid can flog those strings…….

P.S. Check out the BRC “Peace Dove” banjo on eBay Nov. 1-7.