Finishing the third left handed banjo of the year, a nice Cherry 'woody' open back. A video will be uploaded in a few days.
11" 3-ply Cherry rim, with Walnut cap
Purple Heart integral tone ring
Goat skin head
Cherry neck, with thick Walnut stripe
25.5" scale Ebony fingerboard
Aged brass hardware
Abalone fingerboard markers
Mother of Pearl 'Orion's belt' peghead inlay

Just finishing these two banjos, both lefthanded and nylon strung. A final set-up/few tweeks next week and they should be good to go.
A very short audio file for each will be added after the weekend (I can't play much lefthanded!)

Top: 
12" Black Walnut block rim
Brass rod tone ring
Renaissance head
Black Walnut neck
26 3/16" scale fingerboard
Nylon strings (medium)
Brass/Ebony inlaid star

Bottom:
12" 3-ply Ash rim with Ash cap
Rolled brass tone ring
Renaissance head
Ash neck
26 3/16" scale fingerboard
Nylon strings (medium)
Silver inlaid draught horse

Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year to all of my customers. Huge thanks for all of the orders this year.

Plenty of cool banjos already booked in for 2021, lots of other stuff planned too... we'll see what happens!!

Check out the latest custom builds, I'm super chuffed with how they both turned out. My first banjo made from Honduras Mahogany and Pau Ferro, I'll definitely be using both woods again!

Here's where I'm at with the next batch of open-back commissions. Rims, necks, fingerboards and peghead overlays are all glued, ready for working on over coming weeks.
From top left clockwise:
Rob's - Walnut neck, 12" Walnut rim, Ziricote fingerboard and peghead overlay
Ali's - Walnut neck, 12" Walnut rim, Ebony fingerboard and peghead overlay
Andrew's - Walnut neck, 11" Walnut rim, Ebony fingerboard and peghead overlay
Jon's - Honduras Mahogany neck, 12" Honduras Mahogany rim, Pau Ferro fingerboard and peghead overlay

Since I haven't posted anything in a while, I thought I'd better!
Below are some photos of the current batch of commissions, a varied selection, all coming along nicely.
Clockwise from top left:
Cherry, 11" rim with Dobson tonering, Cherry neck with Ziricote fingerboard and peghead overlay.
Walnut semi-fretless neck for 12" vintage pot, the fretless plate will be German silver.
Maple tackhead, with 12" pot.
Rosewood, Spruce and Ebony. A little project I've been planning for myself for several years, might get a chance to get stuck into it later in the year.
All Walnut openback, this one will be very similar to the Walnut 'stock' banjo that I recently sold.
Another Walnut banjo, this one will have Ziricote for the fingerboard and peghead overlay, and a Dobson tone ring.

As I said, these are all spoken for, but I do still have a few, very tasty banjos for sale on the 'banjos in stock' page.

I received a nice email from a customer, this week, along with some photos, which I truly appreciated.
It gave me the idea, that it would be really nice to have a 'rogues gallery'  page! If you have a photo of yourself, with your 'Ballard banjo/banjos' please send it over to me, don't be shy, it would be great to see :)

'Hi Leon, Thought you might like to see your banjo in it's new home with the proud owner.  Also in the photo are my custom Brook guitar made in Devon & an Eastman uke. Banjo takes pride of place!  Banjo sounds superb & so easy to play. The neck is beautiful & silky & the Walnut looks gorgeous.
Thanks again
Gary'