My first two attempts at banjos. Well, they played like banjos. The one on the left, #2, the Banjolin, is all walnut except the maple sides and rosewood bridge, very light, and along with the dulcimer Carnemirë was backpacked into the Grand Canyon in 1979. It was foolishly given away in the 1980s. The one on the right, #1, Fanduin, the longneck banjitar (due to the shape of the body like an electric guitar, not how it's played) has a head cut from an old plastic snare drum head, tacked onto the underside and stretched the way bodhrán heads are. I got it signed by Pete Seeger at an anti-nuke rally near the Shoreham, LI power plant. Notice the white second "fifth string peg": that was removed almost immediately I finished the beast, after trying to use two fifth strings. Doesn't work. Scroll down for a closeup of the banjolin's peghead.

A little bas-relief of a Tolkienesque mountain range, perhaps what's left of Ered Luin west of the Shire, with carved-out black-painted walnut mountains and crushed shells for rivers and sea, held in with clear epoxy.