This is a tin can banjo I made a few years ago. A Greek/Danish cookie tin banjo in fact. The neck is made out of an old beech bed frame. The sigmoid head is based on the drawing of Joel Sweeney's banjo in Pete Seeger's How to Play the 5 String Banjo. As you can see, the stringing is a bit irregular. I didn't have any real banjo tuners, and I don't like guitar tuners on a banjo very much (though now that I have a Harmony I'm getting used to them). I did however have a bunch of 5th string friction pegs from Stewart-McDonald, so this was the solution - it works, although a little hard to tune. Fine tuners would be useful. I also tune it low as the keys get pretty stiff at "concert" pitch, with the strings bending around through the hole in the head. I left the back on as it sounds better; it also helps solidify the whole thing.

     You can hear it here: D is for Dishabille - realplayer & mp3. There are more banjo mp3s over at Hark, as well as a picture of another tin can instrument, the opus, and a recording of it.

     Click on a thumbnail below to see the full size image.