I have been designing consumer products for more than 40 years and have worked with major corporations and factories around the world developing products made of wood, metal, glass, ceramic, textile and plastic.  You probably have things I’ve designed in your home - you can buy some at the Museum of Modern Art.  So what does this have to do with banjos?

I learned how to play and build banjos while a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn between 1962 and 1966 - my thesis in industrial design was an acoustical guitar, but my real musical interest was banjos.  I’ve been playing, designing, building and repairing them ever since - I know how to design and make banjos, I know how they work - sound is my primary interest.

I’m now using my design ability and what I know about mass production to make musical instruments by hand, knowing how it would be done in a factory.  The instruments I make are not copies of something else or assemblages of standard components, although they are designed and built in the spirit of traditional banjos. Every one is one of a kind, from the ground up, designed for the individual player’s individual needs - it’s all about the sound, the appearance, and the human engineering.

That’s what a custom instrument is.