the beautiful music all around us .. stephen wade stops by ....

we had a great event in manchester last wednesday evening.  the verrmont council of the humanities 'first wednesdays' program featured stephen wade, a grammy winning banjo player and music historian.  he is a stunning performer and great story teller.  he spent an hour or so describing his travels through the south, meeting and playing with the old time musicians in the 60s and 70s interspersing the story with song on about 7 or 8 historic banjos from his collection.  naturally, at the end of the show, will needed to buy his book, 'the beautiful music all around us ... field recordings and the american experience'.  more about that book at this link.  while doing that, he struck up a conversation with stephen and his friend sandy, a banjo collector.  next day, wouldn't you know, they showed up at the shop for a visit and to test out a few of will's banjos.  great music, great banjos, and a great time was had by all ...

sandy, with a new one, hot off the press

 

and will plays a tune for stephen ..

see more photos of will's banjos and their construction on his seeders instruments instagram feed.

will's banjos hit the tv news

WCAX burlington recently featured will in their 'made in vermont' last monday on the six o'clock news.
here's a link to the tape.  it was great!.  check it out if you have a minute.  they filmed and talked for about an hour and boiled it all down to about 3 minutes.  a lot of work goes into this stuff.

 

he's currently working on banjo #13 and i'll post more photos tomorrow ..

6/22/2014 .. for photos of 20 more banjos visit will's website at seedersinstruments.com

cool inlays .. should have the finish on it soon ...

banjo 010

will's banjo #010 was picked up last week, and it was a beauty. it had a long neck like pete seeger's, his first engraved pearl inlays, and a cool black finish ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

looooong neck

i didn't get many in process photos

close up of the engraved and dyed inlays

ebony veneered peghead

the back, with the black finish

no videos yet, but i see will has put pictures of banjo #009, aka the 'daffodil' banjo, up on his website, seeders instruments.

you can see the length of the neck in the rough here, compared to the picolo banjo next to it.#009 .. the daffodil banjo

open studio update 5.27

we had an excellent first day of open studio weekend saturday. we started off with a long list and a pretty big pile of disorganized stuff friday morning, but by 5:30, we had it all together, the studio doors were locked, and kit and i were sitting by the pond. click the photos to enlarge them ...
we added the leather seats to the chairs first thing and put them upstairs out of the dust explosion that occurs once a year when we clean the shop for this event.  this is what it looked like around 9:00 am, and the photos above and below were taken just before i shut out the lights at around 5:00.
as you come in the door there are two slabs of claro walnut that we finished in anticipation of clients who were arriving friday after lunch to discuss a coffee table, which they ordered. the weekend was off to a good start ...
they considered the two we had put finish on, but in the end, selected one that we hadn't prepared ... bonus ..
these 6 ladderbacks we built to go with the claro slab table with the rebar 'x' base that we finished thursday. that table and chairs will be going to the guilford, vermont, welcome center on route 91 for july, august, and september as a display piece to troll for new work. the state offers space to crafts people who ask for it for free in three month blocks. i was lucky to get the summer block and my contact told me that over 600,000 people stop there in an average year. it is a beautiful space. imagine that ... we have high hopes for that piece of marketing.
probably the 'most commented on' item of the day was this copper top table we finished on friday around 2:00. (cut it a little close) .. it's 3' wide and 11' long.
it's based loosely on an antique french provincial wood top table image from the internet. this table will get its own post as the whole process was interesting. you can see most of the half size mockup behind the chairs photo above.
it turns out that the mahogany coffee table will be around for another 3 weeks or so so we found a place for that .
sam finished the base thursday for this bench we fabricated from an offcut of a table we made two years ago. it was originally about a foot wider and had some issues, but after some judicious trimming, made a nice little bench ... i actually sold it today and it will be going to a local home where they'll use it as a coffee table on a covered porch ... perfect ...
sam had two of his three spark screen/fireplace inserts on display and they received some excellent reviews ...
and will dropped off his new 'daffodil' banjo that he finished wednesday on his way to a gig in glover, vermont, waaaay up north ...
rum drinks and beer for my crew ... kit got her jewelry set up in the finish room ...
and penny set up her paintings in the finish room with kit's jewelry and then took a rum and a tour of the shop with trevor ...
we go back to the late 70's with jim and penny, and you couldn't ask for better friends ... all for now ...
more photos tomorrow ...

the 'vermont' banjo

#007 out the door today, and what a beauty! a local client commissioned this 'vermont' themed banjo from will at seeders instruments a while back ... all vermont woods and inlays; local cherry from bob crosby at battenkill tone woods in arlington, vermont, walnut from my dcf stock, cut in rupert, hop hornbeam for the fretboard from a friend who was cutting some firewood and liked the look of the log and dropped it at our shop for will to dry and use ... it's all good ... click the pictures to enlarge them ...
the seeders instruments nameplate ...
the whole deal
side view
will set up a new photography thing by hanging the banjo from the ceiling on monofilament fishing line in front of some pool table felt we had on hand. we're wrestling with a new camera so some of the photos seem a little dark, but the details are crispy when you blow them up ...
back view with another map on the heel ..
peg head with a little knot figure in the walnut
nice tuners from stew mac ..
and the 'boat heel' detail on the neck ... very cool ... i had never seen that shaped detail before.
and there is a short video, both claw hammer and picking style on will's website and there are a few 'in process' photos below ...
other banjo posts here ... and will's banjo 'plays nice' with some of our other vermont stuff ... might be time for me to do something vermonty ... hmmm .
the boys are proud to be vermonters .. sam has sold about 150 of his 'vermont belt buckles' now ... great wedding and birthday presents.
and trevor made this coffee table for himself a few years back

banjo #6 ... a remake

will shipped his latest banjo project yesterday afternoon. it was a 're-necking' of an antique instrument made by W.A.Cole, of boston mass. the client had the original nickled brass pot, head, and tension hardware, but the original 8 string banjo mandolin neck was missing. click the photos to enlarge them...
6/22/2014 .. for photos of 20 more banjos visit will's website at seedersinstruments.com
the client is a banjo collector and w a cole was mostly known for his banjos so she wanted a five string, short neck to go with the diminutive 8.75" pot. will was able to find pictures of w a cole's original inlays online and was able to replicate some of them in the new neck ...
here's a close up of the original maker's mark on the dowel stick which is now back home in the original pot, which, as you can see below, polished up nicely.
it has a surprisingly loud and robust sound and i'm sure at some point soon there will be a video online on will's website, seeders instruments, so you can hear it ... great sound ! 12/18/2011 ... the video is up now ... here's a link to it.
this photo shows the 8 string end from its original banjo mandolin configuration which will was able to adapt to the new five string mode.
he had to fabricate a missing, tricky, dovetailed brass piece that tightens the neck to the pot. he had it chromed to match the original by a local electroplating service, vermont plating, in rutland.
in the new case, and ready to ship ... should arrive at its destination tomorrow ...