So beginning in 1983, Dad turned out the first few instruments... rather than from scratch they were partial or sometimes total rebuilds of 1970's era Gibsons (which weren't all that stellar to start with) or Stellings, which were okay, but heavier than a pail of nails. We were modding and customizing these things strictly on a one-at-a-time basis... mostly just for local players or friends. In this part of the world, shake any good-sized tree and a half-dozen banjo players will tumble out... at least a couple of them will br really good ones. Among them, Dad was good at the technical and structural details, and his setup work was known far and wide as the best around. Early on he saw I had a better eye for the artistic aspects, later I would learn to do all his finish and detail work.
By the time 1987 rolled around, we had begun putting our own brand name on the banjos, beginning with instrument #8, which was commissioned by a friend of ours who was (and still is) a touring musician. He wanted all gold-plated hardware, a drastically radiused fingerboard and a fully carved resonator, and only gave us a rough sketch to go on for appointments. This was the first banjo to ever have the trademark honeybee logo. The name Honeytone started as an inside joke, but just kinda' stuck. Though old #8 changed hands and then dropped out of sight following a bad divorce, he still has another of our banjos, #19, which has it's own great story... it was backpacked to the summit of Mount Fuji once during a tour stop in Japan. The monks who live there, never having seen such a thing were so fascinated they burned a seal into the back of it. At least that's how the story went!
The next big step came in 1991, when #16 was ordered. Sweet Sixteen was to be a birthday present for a really gifted girl who had a very bad back injury. Her parents needed to find her a lightweight banjo, but one that was still professional grade, so Dad went to work and totally redesigned everything. Rather than a heavy bell brass tone ring, we settled on a simple 11 diameter brass hoop, made of 1/4 stock, reminiscent of Gibson's lowend models from the 1920's. The shell (round part) was also redesigned so that the lathe tapered to a peak at the top. Though a lightweight banjo that still sounded and played good flew in the face of tradition, it was a perfect combination tone-wise, and with the lightened shell, we had shaved almost 5 pounds off the total weight. She loved it, and still plays it to this day. I just replaced the original pegs last year, worn slap out.
About the same time we started on #16, I had taken some of Dad's doodles, and come up with a unique headstock pattern which was completely asymmetrical (also a big no-no to traditional banjo guys) but loosely resembling a 100 year old headstock he had seen somewhere. The first guy that came into our shop and saw #16's neck in the bench-vise was so impressed with the radical new, old-school peghead that he ordered #17 right on the spot. Every banjo since then (except #18, which was already in progress) has that same pattern. I still have the original plexiglass template hanging over my bench.
In the mid-1990's, based on how well his new design had worked out, after some more tweaking, Dad decided to build a set of 3 banjos, that would all share this new lightweight pot assembly design, but be completely different in what wood we used, and how they were appointed. He put me in charge of that part, and we started work on #22, 23, & 24. It was the first time I remember us building something without a specific customer in mind. All three were sold within a month, #24 went to New England and eventually went home to Europe with it's original owner, #23 went to western North Carolina, and a guy who owned a local music store bought #22, and still has it today. It's been refretted twice, and had to be repaired one time after a gig bag... incident. (this is the abalone-inlaid burled walnut one in the pictures)
After building 30 banjos, 3 guitars, a couple mandolins, and who knows how many repairs in between, these days we don't do as much... all the tools are in my shop now (I mostly work on upright basses) but in the past 10 years between his job and mine there just hasn't been enough time. Dad's looking at retirement, possibly as soon as this fall, and there's already rumors and rumbles about us cranking up production again... #31-35 are packed away waiting.
