Jo Guitar, the Banjo Guitar…

The Jo Guitar was unveiled at the 2013 Issundun festival, check out its presentation by Jacques Carbonneaux on laguitare.com.

Fruit of the collaboration of two instrument enthusiasts: Philippe Berne (design and external structure) and Bruno Torres (internal banjo). This “Jo guitar” integrates a banjo shell into a guitar body. The bridge covers half the head of the banjo on the treble side and the soundboard (in larch) on the bass side. The goal of this research is to enrich the sound balance of the instrument, guitar banjos being quite poor in low frequencies. The back and sides are made of Ardèche mountain ash: a magnificent wood, once precious, but then the lack of production and the veneration of exotic woods relegated it to the rank of firewood!
It is comparable to maple for its density and sound color. The banjo barrel is made of high quality walnut with synthetic skin; natural skins were excluded from the project because of their sensitivity to air humidity. Amaranth fingerboard and maple neck.

You can see the very first banjo guitar prototype just below…

The soundboard is made of larch, the back is made of lime, the neck is made of maple, the fingerboard is made of rosewood.