Walnut and Ebony 12" Ouchless Whyte Laydie

This banjo may be my best work yet.  It was a special order from a player in France who likes dark color woods and shares my passion for bowhunting.  I have not done an arrow inlay in a while and I was excited when he requested one, (actually he requested two)!  The pot is a 12" all walnut "ouchless" with a cap of ebony at the bottom and a Whyte Laydie tonering.  All the metal hardware is raw brass.  The John Balch goat skin head looks and sounds great on this instrument.  The neck is also walnut with an ebony stripe, heel cap, headplate, and fretboard.  The fretboard has 17 frets and a scoop with my exposed truss rod nut.  I hand cut some pearl dots and inlayed a star and an abalone dot at the 10th fret.  The dot is placed in a black portion of the grain which reminded me of a black hole.  There is a bone nut and EVO fretwire for long wear.  The neck is 1 3/8" wide at the nut and has a 25.5" scale length.  The headstock has a beautiful inlay of a deer skull of pearl with abalone horns.  There are 2 crossed arrows beneath it with abalone shafts and pearl points and vanes.  I really like the sound of this banjo!  It has beautiful tone and exceptional bass response.