DIY Network

Handmade Gourd-Banjo, Part 1: Preparing the Gourd Body From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-206

	The traditional gourd banjo was first played in Africa more than five centuries ago.
	Host Jeff Wilson, at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee, holds a traditional gourd banjo.

Cultural identity is defined in part in the culture's music. At the Museum of Appalachia, where host Jeff Wilson introduces this episode, a variety of musical instruments indigenous to the Southern Appalachian region are on display. For many, these musical instruments, and the sounds they produce, help define the spirit of this historic mountain region. But the history of one of those instruments, the banjo, actually begins half a world away -- in Africa. Its earliest incarnations can be traced back at least five centuries.

In this edition of Handmade Music we focus on the original incarnation of the instrument -- the gourd banjo. All the steps in creating a modern replica of this ancient instrument are demonstrated by luthier Matt Morelock.

Materials used in this episode:

Large dried gourd
Calfskin or goatskin
Quarter-sawn mahogany stock
Ebony for the nut
White pine for bridge
Rawhide strip
Wooden dowel
Wooden blocks
Gut string
Violin pegs
Peg reamer
Band saw
Cordless drill and bits
Bit-aligning tool
Hand saw
Scraper
Files and rasps
Sharp chisel
Sandpaper
Hole punch
Poster board
Woodworker's glue
Clamps
Gunstock finish
Carpenter's pencil

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	Luthier and banjoist Matt Morelock.

The modern-day banjo -- the one that's familiar to aficionados of bluegrass and traditional American music -- has evolved quite a bit since its earliest incarnation. Modern banjos made in the "old time" style have an open back. The bluegrass counterpart has a closed back with a resonator built in. The gourd banjo, which was built as far back as the late 1500s or so, has some characteristics in common with its modern counterparts -- since all are essentially a head stretched over a drum body and a wooden neck.

It has two main components -- the gourd and the neck. The body is made from an actual dried gourd and the instrument traditionally has gut strings rather than steel. This neck consists of several components including the fingerboard, peg head and spike.

Part of the unique experience of creating a gourd banjo is the freedom to "veer off course." Design changes and artistic expression in carving don't necessarily affect the sound of the instrument adversely, and we see evidence of that freedom in Matt's work.

The process begins with hollowing out the gourd and cutting the neck from mahogany. After careful measurement and shaping, Matt inserts the spike of the neck through the gourd. The taper of the spike creates a bond to hold the two components together. Finally an oil finish is applied and gut strings are added. By show's end Matt Morelock is playing the gourd banjo and creating the kind of music heard centuries ago.

	Figure A
	Figure B

Preparing the Gourd Body

Matt begins by cutting open the gourd to clean it, cutting off the top just as one would cut open a pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern (figure A). Inside the gourd are seeds and fibers.

Matt then begins the labor-intensive task of thoroughly cleaning the inside. This prevents the gourd interior from molding and decaying. Material left in the gourd would also dampen the sound of the banjo.

Scraping is easiest if the gourd is soaked overnight. The water softens the skin and it naturally falls away from the sides and can be removed (figure B).

He then uses a scraper, elbow grease and most of an afternoon to remove the stubborn remains.

Figure C

Matt started by carving a small hole so that he could get inside and clean the guts out of the gourd. He now needs to enlarge the hole to its final diameter. The larger hole is needed so Matt can stretch calfskin across it to essentially create a "drum." He uses a rasp to gradually and symmetrically increase the diameter enlarge the hole to about nine inches.

Then, by rubbing the gourd against a flat sandpaper-board he slowly eases into the size he needs (figure C). This gives him complete control without taking away too much material. The sandpaper also smoothes the perimeter and that will be important later because a sharp edge might damage the calf skin when the head is stretched across the opening.

The next step is to work on the part of the banjo which will hold this head to the gourd -- a series of wooden pegs. Rawhide strips thread through the calfskin to secure it, but the strips are tethered to sixteen pegs poking through the gourd's midsection (figure D).

The pegs are made from quarter-inch wooden dowels (figure E), and their locations are marked with a template.

Figure D

Figure E

Matt creates the template with poster board shaped and sized like the gourd's opening (figure F). He equally distributes sixteen marks along the template's edge.

The points are transferred to the gourd, first along the rim, and then about five inches below (figure G).

There's not a lot of precision to this process, and that's part of the beauty of building gourd banjos. Originally, these instruments were built with a variety of tools, materials and techniques. No two were ever exactly the same. The character of each instrument was -- and is -- enhanced by great latitude in measurement and creativity.

Figure F

Figure G

	Figure H
	Figure I

With sixteen marks evenly dispersed around the gourd, Matt drills quarter-inch holes at each position. He saves drilling two of them for later, but he sticks a couple of "can't miss" reminders over the marks. These spots mark the future home of the neck and the tailpiece so he can't really put the pegs there just yet.

He uses patches of blue tape to mark where the neck-joint will be and where the tail-piece will come out (figure H).

But the other fourteen pegs can go in at this stage. Matt cuts three-quarter inch lengths of the wooden dowel. The diameter is a quarter inch -- like the drill-bit -- so the fit should be fairly snug. Wood glue helps secure the pegs (figure I).

In the segment that follows, work gets underway on the gourd-banjo's neck.

RESOURCES :

That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Culture
(Music in American Life)
Author: Karen Linn
Publisher: University of Illinois Press; Illini Books ed edition (August 1994)
ISBN: 025206433X
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century
Authors: Philip F. Gura, James F. Bollman
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press (September, 1999)
ISBN: 0807824844
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

Ring the Banjar
Authors: Robert L. Webb, Margaret Hutchinson
Publisher: Centerstream Publications (2nd edition, 1996)
ISBN: 1574240161
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo
Author: Patrick Costello
Publisher: Pik-Ware Publishing (September, 2003)
ISBN: 0974419001
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions
(Publications of the American Folklore Society New Series)
Author: Cecelia Conway
ISBN: 0870498932
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press (1995)
To order this book from Amazon.com, click here.

Jubilee Community Arts is a regional, community cultural center dedicated to preserving and presenting the traditional arts of the Southern Appalachians. The organization's stated mission is "to promote, preserve and present the performing arts of the Southern region and to nurture the cultural milieu responsible for the birth and evolution of these and related art forms." The organization owns and operates the Laurel Theater, a 19th century converted church located in the Fort Sanders community of Knoxville. The building now houses an acoustically and visually excellent concert hall and archives of concert and field recordings.
Web site: www.jubileearts.org

WDVX
WDVX is a regionally focused, public-supported grass-roots radio station broadcasting from East Tennessee. Emphasis is on old-time and traditional mountain music, bluegrass, Americana, classic country, folk and other traditional and roots-based musical styles.
Web-site and worldwide online-streaming: www.wdvx.com

Welburn Gourd Farm
Organically grown hard-shell gourds.
Fallbrook, CA
The Welburn Gourd Farm is the largest supplier of quality, organic hard-shell gourds in the USA, producing over 375,000 gourds each year. They also host the annual International Gourd Art Festival.
Web site: www.welburngourdfarm.com/

Pick 'n' Grin
Knoxville, TN
Web site: www.pickngrin.com

GUESTS :

Matt Morelock, luthier, banjoist, music teacher, happy camper.
On the web: www.wdvx.com/biographies/12