To build banjos of my own design with my own name was considerably more difficult. If you wanted to buy a banjo from me, the first thing we did was talk about it. We would talk about your style of playing, the decorations and the price. Then you laid half of the money in my hand and then the next year you came back and saw what you bought. That was a tough way to sell a banjo. I starved for about four years before I got enough of a reputation that people were willing to deal with me on that basis. Eventually I got to point where one year I had almost a four year wait list. A guy had to really want one to wait four years to get it. 

JBM: What is it that is different about your banjos?

DS: I seem to have a knack for getting the best sound out of an instrument.

JBM: What did you do that was different than what Gibson was doing?

DS: I did a lot of things by hand that could only be done by hand. If someone wanted to mass produce them they would be stuck doing these little things by hand.

JBM: Is that what you attributed to the different sound? Stephen DiBonaventura told me that you went to a different head size.

DS: I always experimented. At one time I built an 11½  Gibson arched top banjo. I had to have all of the parts made and they turned out to be great sounding banjos but they were so heavy. That extra ½ on the diameter of the tone ring and the flange turned out to add a couple of pounds to the weight of the banjo.
        I also experimented with bridge placements. The optimum place to place a bridge is dead center in the head. However, it is difficult to play the instrument with the bridge dead center on the banjo so you compromise. I moved the bridge 3/8s, 1/2, and 5/8s inches closer to the center. You had to be careful because of harmonics created between the bridge and the tail piece. That distance is a critical distance.  

JBM: I never realized that harmonics were created behind the tail piece.

DS: That is were your harmonics are made whether they are pleasant or unpleasant.

JBM: Is that also why the tail piece is critical to the sound of the instrument?

DS: Yes and the length of the tail piece. The

distance between the tail piece and the bridge is critical. That distance is about as critical as the distance inside the head and inside the resonator. That distance takes the rear wave, which produces sound from the head that produces as much as the front wave, that bends it around to enhance the front wave. It also has to be done in phase. Otherwise it sounds like out of phase speakers and it destroys the sound of the banjo.
        Currently I am building 11½ Bacon style banjos. In most everyone's opinion it is probably the best sounding banjo I have built.

JBM: How are you doing that when you are retired?

DS: Well, I have one customer and he gets one banjo a year.

JBM: And that is Stephen DiBonaventura?

DS: Yes.

JBM: You are known for building some fairly ornate banjos. How did that start?

DS: You do what the market requires. My thing was experimenting with the sound and getting the best sound that I could. I built several banjos for a person in Canada that were fairly ornate but Steve was really the person that wanted the fancy stuff. 

JBM: What is the process that you use to create these ornate banjos?

DS: I have a relationship with the man that was the head of the Art Department for Hallmark Greeting Cards for all of his working life and now he is retired. Steve and I will discuss a motif and I will make some crude drawings. I am a very poor artist. We will then send him to the person that worked at Hallmark and he will dress them up, add his own ideas and then present his art work to Steve and I. When all three of us are comfortable with the art work then that is when we start construction.

JBM: Does the artist also get involved with the carving and engraving?

DS: He does all of the engraving for both metal and pearl. It has always been my philosophy that if I can find someone that can do something better then me then I will pay them to do it. The artist from Hallmark is the only one that carves scenes into the brass flanges.

JBM: What are some of the things players should

                               
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