There are many fine banjo makers from Ireland and beyond and I am very honoured that one such luthier has reached out to me to help promote his deep passion life, to make beautiful musical instruments for musicians to own and play. I spent 5 days at a old time banjo & fiddle gathering in Santiago de Compostela, Northern Spain a few years back. The workshops where hosted by 3 of the finest American fiddle/5 string banjo players that I have met, and my first hearing of a David Prat banjo. The world is populated with thousands of imported far eastern made banjos, and an abundance of them are readily for sale on ebay and gumtree etc. Why are they for sale? mostly because they don’t produce the sound that you will get from a handmade solid tonewood banjo. If you are looking for a recommendation I would buy either a newly made banjo or a quality vintage banjo. If you would like more information on a custom made banjo please use my my contact form for further advice. I could talk all day about the unique sounds that you get from different tone wood builds, i.e maple, walnut and mahogany, but instead have a listen yourself to the sound from these fine instruments.

Beautifully hand crafted 5 string banjo designed with scalloped fretboard ideal for playing frailing style among other styles. This is the second banjo sent to me from Barcelona Luthier David Prat, who is known world wide for his handcrafted musical instruments. From 5 string banjo, 6 string banjo guitar (banjar) short scale and long scale tenor banjo, mountain dulcimers, gourds and other Appalachian instruments. The rim is constructed from maple ply, with a Dobson tone ring. The hand profiled maple neck has a centre ebony strip, ebony fret board with simple MOP position markers and rosewood head stock cover with fancy floral mother of pearl inlay. The banjo has nice low action and is very easy and comfortable to play, it is newly made 2019 and normally retails for 1500 euros.

Below features Mitch Depew playing a Prat 5 string with scalloped fretboard.