Custom White Oak “Cutty Sark” Banjo

When asked by a long-time customer to make them a custom Cutty Sark inspired banjo Greg Deering dove into researching the historic ship. During that time period he had the chance to actually tour the ship that is now a Royal Museum in Greenwich, UK. From photos taken on that visit, and other studied online, Greg was able to make very detailed inlays of parts of the actual ship.

In the Gallery above for this banjo are some of Greg’s photos of the ship, along with the inlays he designed and made for the Cutty Sark Banjo:

·       The back of the resonator has the Cutty Sark in full sail making headway. There are an impressive 100 plus individual pieces of inlay on the back of the resonator alone. The background of the resonator is white oak. The water is dyed curly and plain maple. The ship’s hull is wenge wood with gold acrylic, mahogany and white acrylic pearl. The sails are curly maple and the rigging is mahogany. The mast head is acrylic pearl and mahogany.

·       The 1^st  fret is the ship’s wheel. It is made with mahogany, gold & white acrylic pearl.

·       The 3^rd fret is the ships emblem that states “HEAVENS LIGHT OUR WAY” It is made out of gold acrylic and blue acrylic.

·       The 5^th fret is the figurehead which is the Cutty Sark’s namesake witch holding the horses’ tail from the poem (story in ships history below). It is made from white acrylic pearl and mahogany.

·       The 7^th fret inlay is the ship’s bell. It is made from ovangkol wood, gold acrylic and white acrylic pearl.

·       The 10^th fret is a shape from wall ornaments in the captain’s galley. It is made from gold acrylic.

·       The 12^th fret is the Willis shipping company moto “Where Theres a Willis a Way”.  It is made from gold and blue acrylic. Both the ships emblem and the shipping company moto are prominently displayed on the stern of the ship.

·       The 15^th fret is a shape taken from the woodwork in the captains’ galley. It is made from white acrylic pearl.

·       Frets 18 through 22 are the ships anchor with a banner wrapped around it. It was created from the picture of the actual ships anchor. It is mahogany and white acrylic pearl. The banner inlay will be engraved according to the wishes of this banjo’s future owner.

·       On the peghead and neck the white leaf and gold shapes are from the woodwork in the captain’s galley. 

·       The back of the peg head has the Cutty Sark’s ship flag. It is made from blue, white and red acrylic pearl.

·       The neck and resonator purfling accents were designed out of maple wood to give the aesthetic of nautical rope. These were also personally designed and made by Greg Deering.

As is tradition on very detailed completely custom banjos Greg proves the design first, before making the banjo out of the harder to source woods such as burl walnut or high-end curly maple. The “test banjo” is made out of his favorite wood, White Oak.

After over 45 years building banjos it is no wonder that even his “test” banjos come out as works of art with perfect playability.

There are two distinctly different Cutty Sark banjos in the world today, and there will only ever be these two made by Deering. The first one is with the customer who first requested it. It was made with high-end burl walnut, and nautically engraved and chrome plated metal parts.

The White Oak Cutty Sark was completed to Greg’s wishes, furthering the ocean aesthetic with ocean water teal-blue powder finish on the metal parts, and green wood arm rest.

CUTTY SARK SHIP HISTORY

The Cutty Sark ship was built in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869. Its owner John ‘Jock’ Willis, designer Hercules Linton and many of its crew members over the years were from Scotland. But despite its proud Scottish heritage, London was to be Cutty Sark’s home port. 

‘Cutty Sark’ is an archaic Scottish name for a short nightdress. ‘Cutty’ means short or stumpy, and ‘sark’ means nightdress or shirt. 

Cutty Sark’s name comes from the famous poem Tam O’Shanter by Robert Burns. It is about a farmer called Tam who is chased by a scantily-clad witch called Nannie, dressed only in a ‘cutty sark’.

It is a rather peculiar choice of name for a ship however. According to legend – and indeed in Robert Burns’ poem – witches are unable to cross water!

Jock Willis, was the person who gave the ship its name, although it was allegedly suggested to him by the ship’s designer Hercules Linton.

It is not known definitively why Jock selected this name. It could reflect his patriotism, choosing a name inspired by Scotland’s most famous poet. Another ship in his fleet was named Halloween, which is also the name of a Burns poem.

Cutty Sark was built exclusively for the China tea trade. Initially hailed for its medicinal qualities, tea was mainly enjoyed by the wealthy. But thanks, in part, to an extensive smuggling network, its popularity exploded. Tea taxes were slashed to end the smuggling, and by the early 19th century working families were consuming it twice daily. It was also huge business, with over 28 million kilograms imported in 1869 alone.

A fashion developed among Victorians for consuming the first tea to be unloaded in London. This spurred the ‘great tea races’ and a spirit of intense competition: get home first and you could command huge prices. That’s why, as a clipper ship, Cutty Sark was designed to be fast.

She was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which ended as steamships took over their routes. She was named after the short shirt of the fictional witch in Robert Burns’ poem Tam o’ Shanter, first published in 1791.

After the big improvement in the fuel efficiency of steamships in 1866, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave them a shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years.

ABOUT DEERING WHITE OAK BANJOS

The bluegrass inspired White Lotus banjo, named for its lotus flower inspired inlay pattern, is centered around the patented white oak rim. Notably lacking a traditional heavy tone ring, the natural white oak rim closely recreates a bright, crisp bluegrass punch, ushering in a new era in playing comfort and sound for today’s banjo player.

For years players have been asking for a lighter weight banjo with a full rich tone. This desire has become reality in the White Lotus 5-string resonator banjo. Weighing in at only 8 pounds and featuring the patented Deering white oak rim design, this American white oak banjo has the bright tone, crisp and clear note distinction, power, and sustain formerly only seen in banjos with metallic tone rings.

Alongside the patented white oak rim, other features include a white oak neck and resonator accented with white binding, an ebony fingerboard and peghead overlay, new lotus flower inspired inlays, the Eagle Series style flange, Deering’s comfortable neck shape with the easily recognizable peghead profile and and a sparkling glossy finish.