Wildwood Twoubadou

After doing the Guitjo page I realized that the banjos which I like(d) are un-represented here. The one which I really liked for a long time is unavailable, as I sold it in year 2000 when I was getting rid of my house and preparing for the life of a vagabond. That was an S.S. Stuart style banjo from sometime in the early 20th century. Possibly earlier, as the only identification on it was a plaque labeled "Professional No 3". It had a skin head which had the date "1957" written inside the head, presumably the date of its installation. It had a thin rim with metal cladding. These flexible rims are coming back in style with new old time makers.

It was a lovely sounding, plunky box, but after playing a Dering Goodtime I realized that it didn't really play very well. So, I sold it to someone able to take care of it and got a Goodtime, an instrument I would not be afraid to lose. I played the Goodtime for four years in Haiti and brought it to Kalifornya when we became refugees from Le Belle Kreyol.

I started to do an adjustment of the Goodtime in the fall of 2005 and realized that the neck was bending; pulling up. I called Deering, who offered to sell me a new neck; then I saw a Wildwood Troubador at Wildwood Music in Arcata. Despite the names, the businesses are not connected. I loved the craftsmanship, and had looked at them before. I was told by Michael McLaren at the shop that this one was built in the early 1970's. So, with the justification that I'd have had to spend a few hundred bucks on the Goodtime anyway, I bought this violin finished Troubador. The color of the finish is that which a violin would use. Unusual look.

The current Wildwood pots are made from blocks of wood, glued together then carved on a lathe from the outside and the inside. This model from the early 1970's uses the traditional method of steaming and bending strips of wood, then gluing and tacking them to make the ring. This one is 3/4 of an inch thick and is very rigid; it is also very heavy.

When I bought it, I also picked up a new skin head. A pre-mounted skin produced by Gold Tone. I have been out of touch with developments in the banjo world the past few years. Maybe the past few decades; lets say a generation. I had thought that Gold Tone was a cheapo clone, but they build in Florida using some imported parts. This factory ready skin head was news to me. The traditional method is to build a ring to hold the loosed flaps of a big skin circle. Like a Haitian drum. This being my first head change of any sort, the built in retaining ring made this something I could contemplate. I did not do photo's of the installation of the head, but the rim pictures above show the texture of a calf skin head.

I recently installed Aquila Nylgut strings to take the old time thing a bit further. Nylgut is a creation of Aquila which is said to approach the tone of real gut. They are mostly used on Ukeleles, but are now available for banjos. Hard to find, but Elderly Instruments carries them via mail order. This has reduced the volume of the instrument considerably. I was using a piece of foam inside the rim to tone it down. A skin head and nylgut strings make it plunky. This, however, is not what a Wildwood is for. It is a loud instrument for playing with a stage band. The first photo in this paragraph is of a knot in the end of the Nylgut string to allow mounting on the tailpiece. The other two are putting the loops in the tailpiece and looping into the tuners.

The neck is lovely and has a fifth string capo mounted, bluegrass style. I've never had one before, tuning up a whole tone being the extent of uptuning the fifth string that I've ever needed.

The end result is sort of a bastardization: a plunky Wildwood Troubador. They don't know how to spell Troubadour I guess. Twoubadou is the Kreyol spelling. I think I need to sell this to someone who wants a loud open back and get something designed for more old tyme playing, then fix up the Goodtime into a fretless, or partial fretless.

Wildwood Troubador

A division of Music within the Devoid page.