Indian Eat the Woodchuck

Played on banjo # 172 for Johnny.

Going a bit from memory on this tune, doing it I think for the first time on banjo. Was playing it on the fiddle the other day (also from memory) having learned it from Chris Wig’s “Chadwell’s Station” album. This version is from the Hamblen Collection, and is a bit different from Ed Haley and other versions, though I hear a little resemblance in the A part to that of the B part from Haley.

Tuning: dGDGA (gCGCD relative, though I would consider this a G tune)

Three-piece maple neck, 25 1/2” scale, alternating spalted maple and ebony fingerboard plates with mahogany and maple veneers underneath, shallow scoop, ebony and maple flush frets, Vega # 7/9 inspired peghead with book-matched ebony overlay and maple veneer under that, spalted maple inlays consisting of an owl and crescent moon (a bit of inspiration from a “Comet” banjo), stars and dots, and a bear face. Guitar style heel with ebony cap and maple veneer under that. Flat-back bottle gourd with book-matched maple back and calfskin heads (were clear, but turned a bit white as I pre-stretched it while tacking them on). Moon and stars sound holes. Pegheds tuners. Quite a fancy one.

I decided to do something different by adding an ebony wedge in the tail end of the dowel stick to lock the gourd in place on the dowel and to keep the tailpiece from pushing against the gourd wall and causing a buckle in the head. I had been using a maple dowel cross pin on bottle gourds where it was needed for this remedy, but I like how the wedge looks, which is similar to older open backs when securing the heel end of the dowel against the rim.