We love what we do.
It’s our passion.

I’m John, a banjo builder based in Motherwell, Scotland and I’ve been repairing and latterly, hand-crafting my own instruments for the last 20 or so years.  My interest in banjo making follows a path familiar to many Trad Irish banjo players, having been influenced at a young age by the few banjo recordings available back in the day, including the likes of Barney McKenna of the Dubliners and Liam Farrell in London.  A decent banjo in those long gone, pre-internet days was often difficult to obtain, far less maintain or repair, and so, my banjo building journey started initially by doing my own adjustments and repairs, moving on to banjos which I constructed from imported parts and finally designing and hand-crafting my own instruments. 

My interest in banjos now spans all genres of music, from Trad Irish to Dixie Jazz and Bluegrass, but the one constant is my use of superior and sustainably sourced tonewoods and materials to produce a quality traditional banjo which embodies the very best attributes found in the classic banjos of the pre-war era.  I constantly strive to achieve a well-balanced sound with depth of tone, clarity and levels of sustain which permit the player to express and enhance their own style and innovation, whatever that may be.  I pay particular attention to the neck profile as well as the overall weight distribution of the banjo which offers the player comfort and playability, putting them in complete command of the instrument.

Whilst I am in the process of designing various grades of banjo, I’m always happy to listen to and work with customers to achieve the instrument they desire.  Every timber component of my instruments, as well as the decorative inlays are hand-crafted by me alone at my workshop.  I do not use CNC machines, and make only minimal use of general woodworking machinery. For this reason, I only have the capacity to make a limited number of instruments per year, however, I believe that this allows me to produce banjos of individual character, reliability and ultimately, a lifetime of enjoyment for the player.

I’m Paul, a banjo restorer or as some say ‘Banjo Mechanic’ based in the North of Ireland. I’m very passionate about restoring vintage banjos especially from the 1920’s jazz era. I also provide a banjo setup service at my home workshop and have many regular professional & amateur banjo players that avail of my service.

I’ve taught banjo at the Andersonstown School of Music, Belfast Trad and currently teach at GSOTM. I know how a banjo should sound and each and every one of them have their own characteristics. So getting the right tone, volume and sustain takes many hours with some setups. I’ve always aimed to begin building my own banjos and I believe the time is right to do so. I teamed up with John over a year ago and we both put our heads together and come up with 4 new banjo designs. These new banjos will be totally built with the UK which we are proud of. Check out our ‘News Page’ for the latest updates.