Banjo

One Saturday morning in November 2004, I stopped and bought some metal sheet...copper, brass & aluminum. I took these items to my Music Shop, Little Mountain Music in Middlefield, Ohio and started to experiment with different shapes and sizes. Initially Nate (a store employee) and I tried to make a "pie tin" dished shape and found that it created terrible overtones and swirling sounds. I then tried a square shape, with virtually no change in volume or tone. I then tried slightly bending the 4 corners upward, reinstalled it and immediately noticed more volume. While installing and removing the prototype I noticed if it was rotated within a 90 degree angle It would change the tone from Bright-Crisp to Warm-Woody....I knew then I was on the right track. It took several months of trying different shapes and materials to reach the best working model. I filed a Patent and had a good friend Junior Schrock design the tool required to form the finished product. We also tried different materials and thicknesses and settled on .006" thick Brass Sheet. I ordered in some material, designed a press and we made up 17 pre-production parts.

Every Saturday afternoon we had a Bluegrass Jam at my store and we would have musicians from all around Ohio and bordering states drive over for the day. I waited for a well attended Saturday and after an hour or so into the jam I asked everyone present to grab some coffee and step into the back office area. It was pretty much standing room only, so everyone gathered around and wondered what I was up too. Another good friend Dave Pethtel was asked to sit down and with a standard "store" Banjo play a song...after he finished playing, I asked everyone to go outside of the store and I would call them back in a minute..needless to say they were all a little curious as to what I had up my sleeve. Very quickly, I removed the resonator and inserted the new idea, reinstalled the resonator and asked everyone to come back inside and stand or sit in the same place they had been. I asked Dave to play the same song.....

It was great!..all you saw was "wide eyed", "dropped jaw" reactions...they wanted to know what I had done...did I change the bridge??, did I have some kind of an amplifier??...what did I do to change the volume and tone so drastically? Well I shared my secret and Dave removed the resonator and showed everyone....anyway..I sold all 17 that day!

We spent the rest of the afternoon coming up with a name and designed the initial packaging on the store computer....The BanjoMate® was born...

Since that time we have shipped the BanjoMate® all around the World...It's been a very controversial topic for discussion at Bluegrass Festivals, on-line Forums and other forms of media..... Too hard to believe?? Try one for yourself...We give a 100% Moneyback Guarantee if your not completely satisfied.

Doug Campbell