Fret-less, Tennis Racquet Banjo - 'Broken Hearted Fairytale'

Fret-less, Tennis Racquet Banjo - 'Broken Hearted Fairytale'

Video - With Construction photos.

'Broken Hearted Fairytale' by Alex Harvey

How to build a 4 string Tennis Racquet Banjo

find an unwarped old wooden tennis racquet

cut and shape a headstock

 fit tuners and ferules

make sure one side of racquet head is smooth

 sand down one side of the handle

make a tension ring to fit inside the raquet head

Cut and sand the ring to size...drilling inside the ring helps saw access

pegs or scrap wood will hold the ring in place

get an old drum head

glue and staple the cut head to racquet and glue headstock

carefully drill pegs and add screws to hold tension ring in place

fit a bridge and nut

 add screws to the tail to hold strings

tune and play

Where Haufcut Instruments began : Tennis Racquet Banjo

The Tennis Racquet Banjo

This was the first weird instrument I made: A banjo from my dad's old 1950s wooden tennis racquet : I was inspired by the brilliant Dennis Havlena, and this link : Dennis Havlena's Website

 I planed down the handle, glued and stapled a drum skin to the frame and cut a wooden 'tension ring' which is held in place using pegs screwed in to the racquet (being careful to avoid the strings).

 I glued a fret at the top of the neck, and made a simple 'nut' by drilling three holes through a piece of scrap wood. I cut away a simple 'headstock' piece and attached an old guitar tuning peg and two screws. - Two more tuning pegs were added to CAREFULLY drilled holes at the heel end of the racquet, plus another screw.

I used 3 ukulele strings and the bridge from an old guitar.

The Tennis Racquet Banjo Video