Maple 11" Lightweight Resonator Banjo

This is a bluegrass style banjo with great sound and lightweight construction, weighing just over 7lbs.  It has a maple pot of block construction with a walnut cap at the bottom.  The Whyte Laydie tonering gives an impressive growl and is quite a bit lighter than the flathead Earl played.  I also constructed the resonator flange by laminating a layer of birdseye maple on top of two layers of walnut, shaving additional weight off as opposed to the normal metal flange.  Along with holes, the flange also has dog bones carved into it.  The resonator is also maple with a tobacco brown sunburst and cream binding on the sides.  The face of the resonator is polished to a gloss, while the remainder of the banjo has a matte finish, including the sunbursted neck.  The owner wanted custom inlays that memorialized his favorite 'coon dog, Singer, which was an English Blue Tick Hound.  I came up with an inlay pattern that shows Singer treeing a 'coon under a full moon.  The ebony fingerboard has pearl 'coon tracks as markers and pearl side dots.  The neck has 22 EVO frets and a 25.5" scale length and is connected to the pot with a traditional dowel stick to shave additional weight.  This is a really fine banjo and you can hear it played by Frank Lee in this video, Old Joe Clark.