These are instruments in progress or recently completed

Christo Ruppenthal's 2012 Jazz Uke

Finished this week, we are shipping this blonde beauty on Monday, August 20 to Madison, Wisconsin!  Christo Ruppenthal is the Django-style, gypsy jazz master guitarist for the Gypsy Caravan Swing Ensemble.  His uke is a nod to his Selmer-Macaferi guitars, and as such features a blonde finish and Macaferi-style inlays.

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Vera's new "Golden Girl II"

Update: June 2012

After playing her Golden Girl for a little over a year, Vera decided she would like a wider fingerboard, so she and Christian went back to the drawing board to completely redesign the Golden Girl.  The new model features a radiused ebony 25 1/5"-scale fingerboard with a simple frailing scoop and an inlay pattern of slotted squares and fleurs.  The peghead veneer is cocobolo, with a prominent inlaid fleur-de-lis in gold mother of pearl.  The neck and rim are of higly figured curly maple, with cocobolo accents throughout.  Hardware is gold-plated Rickard tension hoop, wade base ball shoes, hooks and nuts, all imported from Canada.  Also from Bill Rickard, this banjo sports a tubaphone tone ring.  The finish is a honey amber to tobacco brown sunburst.

By the way, her original Golden Girl is now for sale, bound to become a highly sought after collector's item...

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Andrew Dean's Custom Festival Favorite

Update: February 2012

This banjo is completed - Andrew drove up from Alabama to pick it up last weekend!

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Rebecca's Triplets

All three of banjos have been delivered now!  The photos below show Rebecca and two of her banjos against the beautiful Tennessee River near Savannah, Tennessee.  The a-scale banjo and banjo ukulele were hand crafted from cherry and maple wood, and feature custom cut heron inlays in the pegheads and ginko leaf motifs on the fingerboards and frailing sccop.  Tuners are geared ebony "Pegheads" for that old time look and feel.  The a-scale banjo sports eye-catching spalted maple for the rim bottom cap, whereae the uke features burled cherry.  We have one more of these to go to complete the trio, Rebecca's custom Festival Favorite model with the 25.5" scale neck and 12" pot.

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Uke News...

The latest thing to fuel the banjo ukulele craze has arrived - deco ukes that throwback to the jazz age, complete with lots of faux pearl!  Check out the deco models in progress, and be the first on your block to own one of these beauties.  We are taking orders for these now, go to the contact page to send us a message and reserve yours today.

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July 2011 Maple/Walnut Banjo Uke

Christian just finished his eleventh instrument, a gorgeous little natural blonde maple uke with an ebony fingerboard and walnut trim.  Don't look too longingly - this baby has already been snapped up by Jeremy Roberts of the Memphis indie band Bean!

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Irish Tenor Banjo

This was a custom order for Tommy & Christian that came from a West Virginia native.  The banjo features a 17-fret neck and a white lady tone ring.  The neck and rim are both curly maple.  This order was delivered to Hanna Thurman in West Virginia in November 2010, as a gift to her mother.

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Minstrel Banjo

Minstrel Banjo

This is the first of the George minstrel banjos.  This prototype was based loosely on a Boucher banjo featured in the Jim Bollman "America's Instument" banjo book.  It features a maple neck and rim and bodhran hardware, all of which have been "distressed" to make it look old as the hills.