Welcome to Banjos on Salt Spring

Banjos on Salt Spring is the result of my enthusiasm for learning a new instrument and Bill Rickard's generosity. When Bill asked if I would like to build a banjo, he also warned me that it is difficult to build just one. With a lot of excellent and patient instruction from Bill at his shop the first banjo was completed (#0801), out of beach juniper and a Stew Mac neck in 2008.

I use a variety of hardwoods including Rosewood, Vermillion, Black Walnut and Eastern Maple in laminate neck construction with accent veneer up the center of the neck and under the ebony fret board, peg head and heel. The hardwoods combined with the raw brass tuba phone tone ring produces an excellent rich sound. The rims are block rim construction with a lower overall glue content, beautiful exposed wood grain and deep color. I am currently building a run of thin (7/16") block rim rosewood banjos with Rickard raw brass Dobson tone rings.

My Western Maple banjo necks are all reinforced with carbon fiber on either side of the dual action truss rod. I roll the tension rings out of brass and use a variety of tone rings ranging from 5/32" round stainless to Bill Rickard's tuba phone or Dobson tone ring. My tuners are Gotoh and I make the other solid brass hardware in my shop. I have an excellent source of ebony for finger boards.

My banjos have received an excellent response from their exposure at the Salt Spring Saturday Market and this website and my summer plans include about a dozen banjos, several brass bodied parlor resonator guitars and a dozen reverie style 22 string harps.

Grant Wickland

Fingerstyle banjo playing provided by Bruce Everett - Salt Spring Island, BC