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The Unexpected Wedding
#30  2007
 

One of my favorite Fairbanks head inlays has always been the Electric s/n 154 which you can see on Bill Michal site, it is so inventive, so unique in its assymetry, so modern for its time! But I will never own that valuable banjo so I decided to make one. As you will see if you compare with the original, I changed the inlay's engravings on the head but still remaining in the style of around 1890. As I did not like so much the inlays on the neck of the original, I made my own, and also for the back of the head and the heel. Here also I tried to stay in the style of this period and to be coherent with the head inlays. This Fairbanks heel carving has always been one of my favorite pattern too.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever get an original Fairbanks 11in "Electric" rim (if any available, they would most likely go into the hands of the famous American banjo makers of today  like Doug Unger, John Gough etc.), so I used a simpler but good 11in rim from S.S. Stewart who was one of the main competitor of Fairbanks in that period. That's why I called it the "The Unexpected Wedding"...

Of course it would be much better with a genuine Electric Rim.  HELP!!!  if you have one for sale (or for free), think of me please...