"Llinos" - a 5 string fretless open back banjo

I recently finished an A scale fretless five string open back banjo called "Llinos" – the Welsh for linnet - for Matt Rowland. It has a 630mm scale length; an 11" pot, American Black Walnut rim capped with Padauk; an American Black Walnut neck with Dobson style heel; American Black Walnut dowell stick; a brass tone ring; calf skin head; an Ebony fingerboard with frailing scoop; Padauk headstock veneers and end grafts, nickel silver hardware provided by Matt and Gotoh tuners with ebony buttons. The tailpiece is a Rickard no knot one.

For the 5th string I used a partial fret where the 5th fret of a 630mm scale would be with a banjo capo spike behind as a string guide. Matt also wanted to capo the 5th string at the 7th fret and so I made a similar arrangement there – not sure if this has been done before on fretless banjos.





Annoyingly Matt is a very talented young Welsh multi-instrumentalist playing guitar, melodeon, whistle and fiddle as well as great banjo and is trying to use and develop traditional Welsh tunes. He kindly did some recordings for me on “Llinos” including one Welsh one “Morfa’r Frenhines” – “The Queen’s March”. This is in gEADE tuning:

“Morfa’r Frenhines”

Next is “Farewell Trion” in aEAC#E tuning:

“Farewell Trion”

Finally “Cluck Old Hen” in aEADE tuning:

“Cluck Old Hen”

Matt also kindly recorded a couple of pieces on my fretted version of “Linos” – “VictorM II”, both in fDGCD tuning.







First “Cumberland Gap”:

“Cumberland Gap”

Finally “Skating on the Harbour Front":

“Skating on the Harbour Front”