Other Strings: Banjito

My sweet Banjito, I had no idea how much I missed you until you came into my life. All these years without even knowing what you were, and then a rash decision in New Brunswick to leave my homeland led me to your skeleton, which in turn led to your creation. As a rule I like to stay away from buying old broken instrument bodies, but when I came across this frame in Maine I knew it would be insane to refrain. It was the sweetest ten American dollars I have ever spent, and now I'm glad I did. Up until two days ago I was content to have you hang on my wall forever, untouched by my hands and my madness, but alas, things in this apartment rarely stay the same. Sometimes all it takes is a few hours on the couch staring off into space for a really good idea to hit me, and hit me you did. I now think I am going to have to change my policy on instruments busted and bloodied, broken and blue. This one piece has inspired me to do an entire series of Spare Parts Experimental Instruments.

As I say, the neck and the body were found at a flea market in Maine. The head was half of a two piece kid's bongo set which, once separated, was again cut in half. I have to thank my friend Mike Whitla for those. The saddle came from eBay, but at the time I thought I was buying a bag of nuts, so go figure. And the black thing it's mounted on is a remnant from the fire at my buddy Brian's place (many a good instrument, and pieces of art were lost that day) Even the screws holding it together came from my friend and boss, Jules of Jules and Tools, and yes, if you were wondering, I do in fact make up one of the tools in the Jules and Tools conglomerate. I guess the only thing that was mine was the cheese grater I found in our utensils drawer which I have no recollection of buying, so it must have been Jen's. I guess the only contribution I added to it was the strings, and you can buy those anywhere.