John Hartord Model Specifications
Neck: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Curly Maple with Walnut stain.
Beautiful Steamboat Scroll Mother of Pearl Inlays
Slender Deering Neck Shape Ebony Fingerboard, Bone nut
22 or 24 Glued In Nickel Silver Frets Adjustable truss rod
• White Binding with Black/White Trim Pot:
Deering Planetary Banjo Tuners Deering Geared 5th String Tuner
• Hartord Grenadillo Wood Tone Ring
Deering Premium Violin Grade 3-ply Maple Rim
Brass Notched Tension Hoop 11” Banjo Head
• One Piece Cast Zinc Flange Deering True Tone Tailpiece
Resonator:
• Te Resonator Sides are Specially Tapered on the Inside for Projection of Tone
Curly Maple with Dark Walnut Stain
• White Binding with Black/White Trim Vintage Satin Finish
• Optional Pop-On Resonator on right
Tone: Te Hartord has a big rounded tone that is full bodied with great bass and sweet highs. A mysterious quality of this banjo is that with the Grenadillo wood tone ring this banjo will “play in” like a violin, meaning that aſter a period of consistent use, the volume of this banjo will increase dramatically. When this happens it is as loud as a much heavier bluegrass banjo with a bell bronze tone ring.
Dimensions: • • • Neck Width at the Nut 1 1/4” • Overall Instrument Length 38” or 39”
Scale Length Nut to Bridge 26 1/4” Resonator diameter 13 7/8”
• Weight Approx. 9.4 lbs or 8.6 lbs for the “Pop-On” feature
Includes a Deering Hardshell Case Lifetime Warranty
••
24 Round Hooks with ¼” Hex Nuts 5/8” Deering Maple/Ebony Bridge
John Hartord had always wanted a certain sound in a banjo. He asked us if we would be willing to make a wood tone ring banjo. We said sure. He cited that he had a couple of Farland banjos where the wooden rims were capped with a litle ebony cap. He really liked the sound of them. Farlands were made about 1900. So we made several maple rims and we glued one with Brazilian Rosewood, one with South American Rosewood, one with Ebony, and another with East Indian Rosewood as the tone ring. We put these banjos together and sent them to John Hartord. He played them and evaluated them. Ten we did one with Grenadillo, which is a Southern Mexican Rosewood, it comes from the jungles in Southern Mexico. It is very britle, very hard, but it’s a very good tone wood. It is what marimbas are made out of. Tey also make clarinets out of it. And John instantly fell in love with the Grenadillo tone ring so that became the standard tone ring in the John Hartord model.
Te other thing we did with the John Hartord model was to work on the inlay patern. People ask why we have a non standard inlay patern on it. It was the standard patern and fairly common to just have the inlays grouped right in the middle and out on the ends of the fingerboard. Some of the old banjos like the Farland, and some of those old banjos made before 1900 had this, so John asked us to do that. John was a licensed river boat captain and wanted us to put some sort of a riverboat theme into his banjo. And again, we were kind of stumped a litle bit, not wanting to just put inlays of riverboats in the fingerboard. Ten we had a really neat opportunity because when Chuck, our head craſtsman and artist who has been with us over 30 years now, was growing up and learning to play music
his main banjo hero was John Hartord. Chuck grew up in Minnesota and when John Hartord would come to town to play he would never miss a concert and he thought John Hartord was the coolest musician. Te idea that he would someday be making a banjo for John Hartord was beyond his wildest dreams so I gave the job of designing the inlays to Chuck. Chuck started studying riverboats and reading a lot. He went to the library and found all the books he could about riverboats. He discovered that there is a whole classic architecture of riverboats that’s significantly different than the architecture that goes into houses. People think that the gingerbread on a riverboat is the same as on the house but it is actually distinctly and identifiably different. Te ratio of the length to width and the style of the scrolls that go into the riverboat architecture are different than what is on a gingerbread house, a Victorian period house. So Chuck took the riverboat architecture and used that classic form to develop inlays for the Hartord banjo. It ended up having a very riverboat type of flavor because it uses that architecture and that art form without having to have pictures of riverboats on it. We accomplished a really classic design for John and Chuck was able to have a wonderful time working with John on the inlay.
When John Hartord passed away we changed the nameplate on the fingerboard from mother of pearl to abalone in the fingerboard. So if you find a Hartord with a white mother of pearl name plate it was built before he passed away. If it has abalone it was made aſter his passing.
Shown on the leſt, there is an even lighter weight version - the Hartord Pop-On Resonator banjo which is convertible from openback to bluegrass style by popping on
the resonator. (Replacing the 2 lb flange with a brass tube) Te 24-frets are a later development - we were able to complete the full second octave by adding 2 frets at the high end of the neck providing a broader range and adding less than an inch to the length of the neck. Te bridge sits closer to the center of the head and brings out a more full bodied sound from the banjo. Te standard 24 fret features an -06- tone ring and is only available as an option.
• Te Hartord tone ring comes standard on the John Hartord, David Holt and Banjosaurus models and can be ordered as a custom option on other models from the Sierra on up the line.
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