2020s Chuck Waldman Chromatic 5-String Openback Banjo

Chuck Waldman builds some beautiful banjos, for sure. This one is an almost-new Chromatic model that still has its listing (as "sold") on Gryphon's website. It sounds fantastic and now that it's back to rights, it plays like a dream, too. We worked on one of his cello banjos last year so I was familiar with the "modern old-time" style of build he uses, already. This one has a fir tonering sitting on the top portion of the rim and Chuck drills some "tone holes" into his rims to clean-up the overtone series, apparently. His build-style works, though, as this really does have a gorgeous voice that's clean and balanced.

Anyhow, the problem with this one was that the fretboard had, for unknown reasons, become unglued in the first 3 frets. A quick pry with a seam separator and the whole dang thing fell off easy-peasy, so something was either wrong with the glue bond when made or perhaps it got hot in transit when it was boght and shipped. Because the board had been unglued a bit while up to tension, the neck itself had warped a bit in first position, too, despite an ebony reinforcement rod fit in the interior. With the aid of a leveling beam as clamping-friend, I got it all glued back-up and tidy, though it's stressful trying to make a clean repair when working on a brand-new instrument.