The Banjolele
Mini-Banjo
With out a doubt, this is my favorite instrument that I’ve ever made! Not only does it sound great, but it’s incredibly loud! Now, I’ve played a lot of uke-banjos, and they’ve always sounded like
garbage to me. The secret to mine is that the drum head is really really tight. If you hit the head it really rings high! I think that it’s high tension combined with the drums small size is what makes this banjo so great! The resonator is actually a cooking pot. The kids love that fact above all others.
 
The neck was from a good “Bruko” uke, but I got angry at the guitarist from my group in Sweden at threw it down a long street at him, (and missed!). It cracked open along the curved edge. Then it became a steel stringed electric uke with a stratocaster pickup, (it sure wasn’t any good for use as a normal uke anymore!) and finally became what you see here.
 
If you look at the photo closely you can see the electronics that project a nifty colored light show onto the skin from inside.