"A banjo will help you through times of no money. But money won't help you though times of no banjo", the late John Hartford

NEWS AND UPDATES - November 2006
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IBMA  WORLD OF BLUEGRASS 2006
NEW OPEN BACK BANJOS
NEW 5 STRING BANJOS
INLAYS AND MARQUETRY

IBMA WORLD OF BLUEGRASS
Nashville 2006

Our second year at Nashville was, just as last year, a great success. We had the same booth as last year and it was gratifying to see folks actively look for the "Australian Instrument Makers" stand.

Here are some photo's from this year and we've put some general interest ones in as well just to lift the interest level. Of course, they're thumbnails so click on them if you want a bigger view.

	Our good friend Jack Hatfield paid us a visit and put the wooden tone ringed Burdekin Banjo through its paces. I got the Hatfield seal of approval for this banjo.
	Here's a shot of our part of the Australian Instrument Makers booth.
	Maura O'Brien plays her Burdekin Banjo and is joined by Dan Levenson.
	Myself and our host Tina Thomsen. Tina allowed the four of us the run of her beautiful, and historic, house in East Nashville for the Festival. Tina loves bluegrass.
	Maura O'Brien and Laurie Grundy share a banjo lesson together. Laurie, acting as teacher, reckons Maura has the makings of a great player.
	From left to right, Laurie Grundy, Roger Simpson, Lonnie Hoppers, and John Liddy.
	Australian Mandolin maker John Liddy settles in for a great night at the keynote address and dinner on the first evening of the festival. Jerry Douglas was the keynote speaker.
	Here's the entire O'Brien Family band, the family that entertains families. From the top left and going anti-clockwise that's Dan (standing) Janette, Maura (sitting with back to camera, and Kyle.
	David Fields from West Texas collects his Eucalypt Strangler Fig Banjo having lent it to us for the week which we really appreciate. David owns two Eucalypts, the other being the 'Appalachian Spring'
	The centre of Nashville taken from a pedestrian bridge early one morning as John Liddy and I decided to walk to the convention centre rather than catch a cab. It's a beautiful place.
	And here's the bridge John and I walked over. It used to be a road bridge crossing the Cumberland River and they made it into a pedestrian bridge ... and what a fine job they made of it too!
	Ah yes, grid iron football. The Tennessee Titans versus the Dallas Cowboys. It's a game I didn't understand but I got my revenge by trying to explain cricket to the gentleman sitting next to me ... he gave up.
	Cheerleaders, it is rather a nice shot don't you agree, artistically speaking that is, artistically speaking.
	I am rather proud of this shot. It was taken about an hour after dawn and about 2 hours out of Brisbane at about, I'm guessing here, 36,000 feet

There's no doubt about it, the Australian made instruments we displayed are up there with the best the world has to offer. The competition is stiff which is a healthly things, it keeps the standards improving all the time.

As an example, Anne's marquetry on the resonators was a huge draw with many folks coming to the booth simply to see them and to take photographs. With so much importance attached these days to sourcing work from cheap labour countries there is still, thank goodness, a huge market for a good old fashioned hand crafted instrument. It was just so sad that Anne couldn't be there this year to hear the praise she so richly deserved. However, she's going to be there next year.

We will be back, better than ever, to display our wares for the IBMA 2007 World of Bluegrass.

NEW OPEN BACK BANJOS

Eucalypt Open Back banjos are rapidly gaining a reputation for their sound, beauty and quality of workmanship. We've made quite a few lately so we thought we would bring you up to date. See the open back page for even more details and photos of the latest Eucalypt open back banjos.

Here's what you can now specify for your open back banjo, don't forget we only build to order (effectively, every Eucalypt Banjo is custom made for each owner) so we can mix and match according to your needs :-

• Bronze or wooden tone ring. For the latter we use the wonderfully resonant Australian outback timber, Burdekin plum. Dan Levinson was playing a Eucalypt wooden tone ring open back in the photos above.

• You can also request an 11" or 12" open back. Both sizes are available.

• Frailing scoops are standard above the 17th fret. Of course, if you want the full 22 frets just ask. Oh yes, we also make fretless open back banjos as well.

• Elite Amber heads are now standard for that beautiful warm old timey sound.

• Rick Samson bridges are also now standard.

To whet the appetite here's a couple of photos for you to click on, what's the point of temptation if you don't give in?

	Here's a detail of the frailing scoop above the 17th fret, you can also see part of our 'Falling Leaves' pearl inlay and the now standard Elite Amber head.
	Another view of the same banjo, this one has a bronze tone ring.
	This photo shows the inside of a Eucalypt open back banjo, this one was fitted with a bronze tone ring. As you can see, we put a lot of work to beautify both the inside and outside of the rim.

NEW 5 STRING BLUEGRASS BANJOS

As always the ever popular 5 string bluegrass banjo keeps us busy with a satisfying quantity built and delivered since the last update, don't go away without seeing the 5 string banjo and the resonator pages for all the details.

The big news is we've renamed the 'Eucalypt Jarrah' model to the 'Eucalypt Standard' model for several reasons. Here they are :-

1. The original name was because we used Jarrah veneers on the resonator, this beautiful veneer is still available but we now offer a range of other gorgeous Australian woods to choose from all the Eucalypt Standard banjo price. a couple of them are shown as examples below. Just ask us what's available.

2. The word 'Standard' doesn't mean a lesser banjo in terms of quality of workmanship, sound, or finish. The specifications and guarantees are just the same as our custom banjos but without Anne's marquetry artwork on the resonator. We do, however, inlay a couple of gum leaves in the back.

Below is an example of a Eucalypt Standard Banjo. This one has Queensland Maple Burl veneer and, if you click on it, you'll see the gum inlayed leaves:-

All our banjos now have a Papua New Guinea fingerboard and peg head. Our logo is now inlayed in the peg head with pearl and the fret positions (on the Eucalypt Standard) are pearl diamonds rather than plain dots, a much better look.

Rather than ramble on endlessly the best thing to do is to go to the 5 string banjo page or, to see what Anne's created for Eucalypt owners, have a look at the resonator pages

INLAYS AND MARQUETRY

As mentioned before, Anne's inlays certainly caused a stir at IBMA. Her Appalachian Spring was probably the most photographed banjo at the show. You can see her work throughout this site but if you want to see them all a trip to the resonator page is like wandering around a fine art galley.

Here's just one example, Leah. Named after the daughter of a Eucalypt owner. Anne was given a painting (left) as a starting point. The finished resonator is right. The background veneer is ebonised Jarrah and Leah's profile is Cheesewood. A click on each of them will produce a bigger picture.