Clifford Essex Weaver (pre-owned)

THE BANJO WITH THE BIG WOODY TONE
MADE IN ENGLAND

Hand made by Clifford Essex craftsmen

The Weaver is the ideal classical banjo.

This beautiful, completely hand-made banjo with a 11” hoop. The hoop is made of English oak with an integrated Chakte Viga tone ring, producing a brilliant tone. The neck is mahogany, geared pegs with real ebony buttons, the position markers are plain mother of pearl or abalone dots.

The heart of this banjo is the Chakte Viga (scientific Name: Caesalpinia Platyloba) tone ring. Chakte Viga is a tropical hardwood from Mexico. The hardwood colour varies slightly from pale to rich reddish orange/brown. Chakte Viga is sometimes referred to as Paela. The grain is typically straight but can be interlocking. It has excellent tonal qualities and is popular in both instrument building and wood turning.

Other dimensions

Nut width – 33mm
22 frets
24 hooks
Right-handed
Scale length – 24 ¾”
Overall length – 35 ½”
Width at 12 fret – 47 mm
Weight – 2.43 kg
Ebony fingerboard
Mahogany neck

Note: This banjo is in very good condition and was pre-owned by Alan Vinson Middleton. Alan was a prolific composer and arranger of the classical banjo and guitar and worked tirelessly for Clifford Essex Music for many years. The sale of this banjo is on behalf of his family.

Alan Middleton had the original perch pole repositioned, hence, on the inside of the hoop you’ll see two small, plugged holes (see pics). We believe this was done to reduce the stretch on the attachment string.

More information re our Weaver banjos:

In recent years we have done a lot of research into the banjo tone ring. The finest violins, cellos, mandolins, guitars etc, do not have a metal component designed to enhance the tone. Like these instruments, our banjos are constructed of the the finest hand-picked timbers, chosen for their fine acoustic qualities. In the 1920s the metal tone ring was introduced into banjo construction by the Americans and was quickly copied worldwide by nearly all banjo makers, including this company, with our Concert Grand and Paragon models. All manner of metal tone rings were introduced, some were just a plain metal ring, others were hollow rolled brass, some were, and still are, like a large sound chamber littered with small holes to let the sound out. This acts as an echo chamber, the problem being, given a run of notes, the note just played, rings on when the next is played, the player, no matter how skilled, is not in full control. Every player has his or her own views on how a banjo should sound. To our ears, banjos constructed with any form of metal tone ring, produce a metalic, cutting sound, that maybe exactly what you are looking for, in which case, do not buy one of our banjos. We favour the big natural woody tone produced by the high-quality timber used in the construction of this instrument.

The shape of the Weaver neck was designed by Alfred Weaver, long before WW1. His banjos were played by the top professionals of the day. We wanted to retain the original appearance of the instrument and chose not to fit truss rods in the neck, which would require a truss rod cover on the peghead. The neck is hand carved. However, to be absolutely certain that the Weaver neck can never warp, particularly in countries with very high temperatures, we fitted an unbendable aluminium rod under the fingerboard, extending from the nut to the heel. Since aluminium is very light the Weaver retains a very fine balance.

Postage UK (£20), Europe (£70), Rest of the world (£150)