Custom Rickard 11" 5-String with Bacon/Scalloped Tone Ring & Maple Neck and Rim #1876
Handcrafted in Canada by Rickard Banjos, Serial #1876 is a custom open-back instrument that fuses vintage aesthetics with modern luthier precision.
Why It's a Custom Build Rather than following a standard production template, this custom 5-string incorporates a suite of premium, antiqued brass hardware and historical design:
Bacon/Scalloped Tone Ring: A specialized tone ring not found on standard Rickard production models, providing a distinct vintage voice.
Rickard WL Peghead Shape: Styled in the classic White Laydie peghead silhouette, crowned with an engraved brass magnetic truss rod cover and high-gear Rickard 10:1 Cyclone tuners with faux tortoise buttons.
Bullseye Ball Shoes & Belly Style Tension Nuts: Period-accurate hardware appointments that mirror the refined craftsmanship of golden-era banjos, paired with an 18-notch tension hoop and No-Knot tailpiece.
A Bacon/Scalloped Tone Ring merges the internal chamber design of a Bacon tone ring with the scalloped brass construction of a Whyte Laydie ring, creating a hybrid voice that balances vintage warmth with bright, punchy projection.
Key Tonal Characteristics
Fat, Warm Fundamental: The internal doughnut-shaped chamber of the Bacon design tunes the inner air space of the rim toward the bass frequencies, giving notes a deep, full-bodied, and slightly "tubby" low-end warmth.
Bright "Pop" & Crisp Attack: The scalloped brass ring distributes vibrations across distinct contact points around the rim, producing the articulate treble, fast response, and signature "Whyte Laydie pop" on the initial note strike.
Combined Construction: With these combined internal construction, the results provide an enhanced note separation that calm down overtones of the higher frequencies. The notes are rounder and provide a balance sustain. The volume is greater and provides more head room.
Tone & Benefits of a Maple Neck & Rim Constructed with a 1/2" thick maple rim and a hard maple neck featuring a 25.5" scale ebony fretboard and "S" curve frailing scoop:
Structural Strength: Dense hard maple offers outstanding stiffness, stability, and energy transfer.
Clarity & Attack: Maple provides a bright, crisp attack with ringing sustain, ensuring excellent note definition so your playing never sounds muddy.
11" Rim Platform The 11-inch rim remains the most versatile rim size for open-back banjos. Compared to larger 12-inch pots, an 11-inch rim delivers tighter note focus, faster response, and exceptional note-to-note separation up and down the neck. It strikes a balanced frequency spectrum—combining clear highs with sufficient low-end warmth—making it ideal for clawhammer, old-time frailing, or fingerstyle playing.
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