Building with kids

[Karl Wicklund]

Our school district kicks off the year with two or three days of enrichment classes. Today, I helped three middle schoolers walk away with simple, homely but functional banjos. We had three hours to stretch the head, attach the neck and install tuners. The results were ok, but the reactions were great. They were thrilled. The picture is a demo one I built from plans outlined by Jon Whitney here on MIMF.

[Eric Knapp]

That’s awesome!

[Matthew Lau]

Nice!

[Mike Conner]

Pouring into the next generation! This is such a blessing. Those middle school aged kids have a new degree of confidence - it will be wonderful to see how the seed you have planted will bloom. Thanks for sharing your interest and talents with the next generation, and for sharing it with MIMF. Very inspiring!

[Bryan Bear]

This is awesome!

[Clay Schaeffer]

Cool!
Are they fretless?

[Karl Wicklund]

They are fretless, yeah. The kids were bowled over by the fact that they *made* a banjo. None of them know how to play - yet.
One of them has come back to me already for repairs, as the tuners proved to be worth all of the $4 we paid for them.

[Frank Dryer III]

Our school district kicks off the year with two or three days of enrichment classes. Today, I helped three middle schoolers walk away with simple, homely but functional banjos. We had three hours to stretch the head, attach the neck and install tuners. The results were ok, but the reactions were great. They were thrilled. The picture is a demo one I built from plans outlined by Jon Whitney here on MIMF.

Did you use a simple plastic pocket on top?

[Karl Wicklund]

The top is plastic from a 2-liter bottle. That limits the dimensions, but it works quite well. Shrinks up when you hit it with a heat gun.