This February the Pisgah Banjo Company is again holding a raffle for a very special custom banjo to benefit the IBMA Foundation’s Arnold Shultz Fund in honor of Black History Month.
The banjo is an open back model made from highly-figured curly maple, with a brass scoop plate emblazoned with the iconic image of Arnold Shultz engraved on it. Shultz has long been a major part of bluegrass history as an early influence of Bill Monroe, and the guitarist who showed him the blues that Big Mon eventually incorporated into his music.
Pisgah is offering a total of 2,000 raffle tickets at $20 each in hopes of passing along a donation of $40,000 to the Arnold Shultz Fund, which exists to encourage participation by people of color in bluegrass music. The first $10,000 donated will be earmarked for the Black Banjo Reclamation Project and their gourd banjo building workshop in the black banjo community.
Tickets for this 2023 Arnold Shultz Fund banjo can be purchased on the Pisgah web site until February 28 while supply remains. There you can also see additional photos of this unique instrument.
A winner will be announced in early March during a live drawing streamed on Facebook.
Specifications of this custom Pisgah Banjo Company model are as follows:
- Scale: 25.5″
- Rim: 12″ Curly Maple
- Neck: Curly Maple
- Fingerboard: Richlite with side dots and copper face dots
- Peg head: Slotted
- Head: REMO Renaissance w/PBCO logo
- Tailpiece: Pisgah Hawktail
- Scoop: S scoop with engraved brass plate featuring Arnold Shultz
- Heel: Folk
- Tone ring: Dobson
- Bridge: Walnut/persimmon Mulheron
- Hardware: Aged brass
- Tuners: High quality brass Gotoh
- Strings: PBCO clawhammer medium gauge
Over the past two years Pisgah has raised nearly $60,000 for the Fund through raffles such as this.
