We’re proud to welcome Followers of the Way banjo picker Andrew Fore to the Sullivan family! Andrew picked up his new Vintage-35 Mahogany last week with a few members of the band – we hope you’re enjoying it, Andrew!

Followers of the Way is a five-piece gospel band hailing from Corbin – they’ve been singing since July of 2009 and have been playing all over the region since! You can keep up with the band and find out when they’ll be in your area next by visiting their facebook page.

Our friend Tyler Mullins stopped by and picked up his new mahogany Sullivan Vintage 35 banjo today. Tyler got his start as the banjo player for the now famous Kentucky Sassafras. He’s now working as a member of the Lonesome Ramblers picking the five for Bluegrass legend Larry Sparks. We are proud to welcome Tyler into the Sullivan banjo family!

We’ve finished up the binding and purfling on the resonator and have sent it and the neck into the finishing room. So far this is coming together to be an incredibly beautiful banjo! The wood on the resonator is exceptionally pretty – can’t wait to see this thing after staining!

If you need to catch up on the Project, check out our forum at the Banjo Hangout.

Our new production processes are in place and the first full batch of Vintage-35 Banjos will be completely finished this month! Jeff took a few shots of the parts that we thought were quite artistic and wanted to share. This particular peghead features Brazilian Rosewood, and you can see the new laser engraving on our Sullivan Historic  rim in the background.

Once this run is finished, we’ll have more photos and specifications on the website – Check back soon!

 Our shop supervisor is healthy, back up and going strong and we are back under way with BHO / Sullivan Vintage 35 Banjo collaboration.  The pictures below are of the walnut neck bound with some beautiful ivoroid / black / white binding and fretted up ready for some finish sanding.  Next we’ll be applying the nitro lacquer finish with the amber toner, watch for some photos we’ll keep you in the loop as the finishing process progresses. 

Your comments are welcome.

Murrell

If you need to catch up on the Project, check out our forum at the Banjo Hangout.

We’re mixing our product line up a bit here at Sullivan Banjo. We’ve decided to tighten our focus back to a smaller product line to focus on the absolute best in price and quality. Effective immediately we’re stopping production of our Festival and Jam series – We have a few left but will not be replenishing stock once those are gone. Our product line will now consist of the Sullivan Classic and Historic Series.

The Sullivan Classic Series encompasses the maple-based Greenbrier, mahogany-based Bardstown, and walnut-based Radcliff. These banjos have been a staple of our product line for years and we look forward to continuing their tradition of excellence. Each banjo in the Classic series will have a Sullivan #1 Flathead ring and a Sullivan 3-ply rim at their core- You can view the full set of specifications by clicking on Banjos in the navigation bar (These specs are subject to change!). We’re also modifying the headstock inlay to a more traditional design (Check out the pictures above) – new, high definition pictures will be available soon! As part of our shift, we’re proud to announce that the pricing for the Sullivan Classic Series is being reduced from $3,495 to $2,999, making these instruments more accessible than ever.

The Sullivan Historic Series will consist of the Sullivan Vintage-35 in three configurations: maple, mahogany, and walnut. We are in the process of taking pictures of these instruments and will have more information on them in the near future – For those of you unfamiliar with the Vintage-35 Project, we’ve been doing research and development for over three years to create a truly spectacular instrument. You can read the full Sullivan Vintage-35 story by clicking here. The Sullivan Historic Series Vintage-35 will sell for $4,299.

Finally, we are proud to announce that we are expanding our business to encompass a network of dealers and will soon have Sullivan Banjos in stores around the world. As we negotiate, you will be able to find the dealer nearest you by clicking on Dealers in the navigation bar above – Keep an eye out here for more updates!

Greetings from Kabul Afghanistan!

Just to let you know that Bluegrass is alive and well on the other side of the world – and in the midst of the Taliban! I am getting great service from my Sullivan banjo.  It has been across the globe three times all in baggage compartments of foreign airlines.  It went with me to Kuwait (2008)(in 140 degree heat!), crossed by air over the Persian gulf, over Iran and down to Kabul (10,000 feet).  Then it survived the unload by Afghani handlers and its still going strong!  In fact tonight we were just finishing a rehearsal and whooooooosh! BANG! ”Hit the Bunkers!”  We had a rocket attack.  So you can say my Sullivan has been baptized by hostile fire.

I have enclosed some shots from performances we’ve done here in Kabul (church and on New Years) (note all the Mongol soldiers we had there celebrating with us). We (Four Horsemen) have been invited by the MWR department (Morale Welfare and Recreation) to provide two more performances in February here on post and across town. Note the hat I’m wearing in the shots.

Best wishes!
-Mark

Mark asked us to let everyone know that if they just happen to be in town, they are having an open jam every Monday night in downtown Kabul. In Mark’s own words: “Second floor Ciano’s building, Camp Eggers, downtown Kabul right across the street from Karzai’s house“.

Thanks for the note, Mark, and we’re glad you are enjoying your Sullivan Banjo!

Just wanted to give you an update on the construction progress on the Banjo Hangout/Sullivan Banjo collaboration project. We’ve started the process, and at the moment are waiting for a few components. We’ve taken the neck and done prelimniary cuts on it, squared it off, and put the ears on the peghead. Duane took it through these first steps, and the neck is clamped and waiting for inlays. Lorne is in the process of making the inlays now- we should have them within a week! Since we want everything on this Banjo to come out fresh, the pot will have to wait until we do another V-35 tone ring pour before we can start there.

Click “Continue Reading” to check out the pictures of our work so far!

If you need to catch up on the Project, check out our forum at the Banjo Hangout.

We’ll have much more information on the Sullivan V-35 on this site in the coming weeks, including pictures, specifications, and more video!