Clifton Hicks

More Antique Banjos SOON.

I'm heading back to Asheville this weekend to pick up another load of instruments! Stay tuned...

"Square Dance Shuffle" Demo on the New Kentucky Banjo

gCGCD relative. See my extensive lesson on this piece here: https://youtu.be/UDLNzXZomdU

"East Virginia" 2-Finger Lesson fFGCD

Someone asked me to do a 2-finger lesson + tab on the original version of East Virginia that I learned from George Gibson. This version is unique and apparently Gibson's original arrangement. ...

Appalachian State University Luthiers Gathering

The luthiers' gathering here is a small event attached to the Appalachian State University Fiddlers Convention in Boone, NC. 

"Jubilee" Lesson

eBEAB, actual (gDGCD, relative). 

Kentucky Mountain Banjo (Video)

Love this banjo. 

More lessons and Q&As coming soon...

Kentucky Mountain Banjo--Completed!

As yall know, I'm short on time this month, but I did manage to finish up this Kentucky style mountain banjo late last night! Attached some glamour shots of it plus a photo of Addie Graham at Hindm...

Kentucky-style Mountain Banjo

Trying real hard to make an east Kentucky style mountain banjo. These are a little trickier than the typical NC/TN style consisting of three boards stacked around a metal ring. 

Quick note about January:

I've been hired on a small government archaeology project here in Tennessee that will be taking up a lot of my time through the month of January. I will still upload at least one or two lessons thi...

Joe & Odell Thompson

"Although North Carolina black banjo players sometimes play accompanied by clapping or other percussive instruments, it's common for them to describe turn-of-the-century ensembles in which two banj...

Dink Roberts (according to Cecelia Conway).

 "Some of Dink's tunes were fiddle melodies that we recognized, but the music came out in a different way. Dink also sang on all of his pieces (even fiddle tunes) and he didn't seem to have na...

"Muskrat" Lesson

The close-up I filmed was so washed out you couldn't see anything, so I didn't splice it in like usual. The song is played entirely on the 2nd fret anyway. Holler at me if you _really_ w...

Vintage Folk Art Banjo - Early Hardware!

f# D F# A D relative. 

This banjo could have been made any time from about 1880 - 1950. It's unusual for several reasons, firstly, both the neck and steam-bent rim are made of pine. Seco...

Live Q&A!

This was a great 1 hour + live chat with over 200 people participating and lots of stimulating questions. Good practical info here as well. Thanks!

"Muskrat" Performance

(gCGCD, relative) I first heard this song performed by Josh Hayes in Boone, NC. Around that time I also heard Rick Ward of Watauga County, NC perform the song on one of his hand-carved mountain ban...

Unusual Pine Folk Art Banjo

This unusual folk art banjo appears to be made of hard, close-grained pine. The bottom-mounted brass hardware looks like another alternate of R. McManus' 1879 patent. A modern luthier has added the...

1890s HC Nelson (Double-Spun Rim)

HC Nelson (Nelsen) was a prolific banjo maker in the Chicago, Illinois area. He seems to have used parts exclusively from the JB Schall catalog. This is a great sounding banjo. Current bridge is a ...

OLD Pot on a Lousy Neck--What to Do?

Check out the lovely, hand-wrought iron hardware on this 1870s (?) banjo pot! It's 9" across & surprisingly light for a block rim with wrought iron hardware. I can't wait to hear this one 'talk...

George Gibson's "Last Possum Up the Tree" Now Available on Bandcamp!

Hallelujah!

'Banjo master George R. Gibson was born in 1938 at the confluence of Little Double, Big Double and Buffalo Creeks in Knott County, KY. He learned to play and sing the old songs, i...

Banjo # 21 | Show & Tell

aple neck (red oak dowel), maple snare shell, Jamaican goat hide (from Jeff Menzies), rosewood tuners, deer bone nut, submerged cherry tailpiece, antique mahogany bridge, "La Bella No. 17" nylon st...

Banjo # 21 Photos

Here's the best photos I could get of the new build. I haven't had time to film anything lately, but look out for the video here pretty soon.

Maple neck, maple snare rim, rosewood tuners, dee...

Oettinger Tailpiece by Lyndon Bespoke Banjo Review

In short, nice tail piece. If you are a highly technical player and/or have some extra money to spend, this is worth looking into. As for myself, I actually prefer the $70 Kershner tailpieces. ...

"East Virginia" Tab

Let me know how this one is & I'll make improvements as we go. This is just a .jpg file that I've also uploaded as an attachment.

So, Y'all REALLY Want Tabs?

Everyone knows that I am not a big believer in tablature; however, for you, I am willing to see the err...

George Gibson "East Virginia"

Enough people have asked me about this song that I finally uploaded a recording of George doing it. This is from the 2018 Banjo Gathering concert at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristo...

1890s Fairbanks "Curtis Electric" - Rare Banjo

"1890... a design that became known as the Curtis Electric, named after Fairbanks' son (himself a prominent banjoist). Much more elegant and easier to construct than the banjo Fairbanks had patente...

Rough-Cutting the Banjo Neck

 Here's how we begin the process of hand-carving a traditional banjo neck. We use hacksaws to make a series of deep cuts which are then clear away with chisels--this creates a rough, three-dim...

"Old Blue" Lesson

gDGBD, relative (aka "Standard," "Cripple Creek" or "Banjo" tuning).

01:06 Technical instructions.

04:12 Close-Up

05:55 Dink Roberts, "Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and ...

"The Cumberland" | Performance

gCGCD (relative) aka "Hook & Line tuning" or "One-Finger C." This song is also known as "The Indian Tribes in Tennessee" or "Cumberland Land." I learned it from a recording of LP Carlock from O...

Carving a V-Profile Neck

This video documents our basic process for reducing a block of maple down to a sharp V-profile. The neck will become a "minstrel" style banjo, so the V will begin transitioning to a D-profile once ...