Chet, Allison Brown designed an electric banjo for Nechville that uses a small head, eight or nine inches--and a small head means a small tension ring is also available. It also means your hat slips down over your eyes, but that's another matter altogehter. Not that it matters: I close my eyes when I play the banjo--or is it the harmonica?

Have you ever seen the book Great Folk Instrumentsto Make and Play, published by Sterling Publishing Company, N.Y.? If you're really thinking cheap, how's a bleach bottle banjo sound to you? The book has everthing from tin can drums to a Celtic harp, including a design for a banjo with an octagonal head with a wooden face. There's also one with a head seemingly made of a cookie can--I'm going to try making a cookie can fretless banjo. I'm also going to use this book with my music appreciation students: many of the instruments are easy to make, from a one-string tabletop "diddly bow" to a full-sized hammered dulcimer and a teardrop violin. It's fun just to read the book and imagine all the things you could make--and to imagine a group of students playing a recital on home-made instruments.

--seed