Chords for MainStreet - "Arthur Hatfield & Hatfield Banjos"

_ Now _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ you always wonder how they're going to sound. _
Every banjo just about varies a little bit, or any instrument. _ _
_ _ I've been doing it as a hobby for about 35 years.
I was a cabinet maker [Em] and trim carpenter for years,
and I've built two or three a year on [G] the side.
_ But I've been doing it full-time since 2001. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Well, I enjoy playing and building,
but there's more money in building than there is playing,
unless you're awful big named.
_ _ Actually, Dale Perry of Doll, Lawson & Quicksilver
was the first professional banjo player to play one of mine.
_ And that was in 2002,
when we were at a festival down in the Smokies.
_ I was more happy, you know, when he took one to play than anybody.
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ It's pretty much handmade.
The first thing I do is turn a rim, and I'll use only Cox rims.
Or I do use a solid old floor rim
that's made of an old floor, a building on special order,
you know, if somebody [Bm] wants them.
And I turn the rim [Gm] and fit it, and I buy my resonators,
which is already bent in the rough.
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[D] _ And the necks I completely hand make, except for the inlay.
_ The inlay is done by custom inlay at Litchfield,
_ _ and it's CNC cut, or it fits perfect.
The CNC router cuts the pearl
and cuts the pocket in the fingerboard for [Gm] the pearl. _
Then I have to make the neck,
_ and I finish all the wood parts [Em] _ and assemble it together.
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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I just try to make sure that the fit,
like the neck fit to the body part,
it's called a pot on a banjo, _ _ fits perfect.
If it takes me an hour and a half or 4 hours,
I make sure that the [G] fit is perfect on the neck.
_ _ _ _ [F] _ Actually finishing is very slow too, you know,
because it'll take probably 15 to 20 coats [Bb] of lacquer
on the [F] instrument to finish it.
[C] _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [F] _ [D] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ All [Db] my earlier ones were just done
like with a wood rasp and so [G] forth.
But I have found, got _ some more tools now
that makes it a little faster, a little easier.
[Db] On banjos, you know, sales are going down for big companies
all the time as there's more individual [C] builders
getting in the business.
That's one reason I started, the main reason probably.
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Some are better than others.
Some are better quicker.
They never sound as good when they're new
as they do after they've played a little while.
Just I think the thing of everything seating together
and _ get to sounding better.
_ So you can never tell when one's a week old
and you ship it out how [B] it's going to sound
six months down the road, you know,
how much it's improved and all.
_ Several of them I've seen after I sold, you know,
some time or other at the Bluegrass [F] Festival or something,
which is a lot [Bb] better than they were when they left.
_ I don't ever have any dissatisfied customers.
_ _ [D] All of them like them. _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday,
you know, because I didn't have a TV.
So that was the big thing, you know,
was listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
And then my dad played claw [G] hammer banjo,
you know, the Frailing style.
Of course, he wanted me to play that style,
and I wasn't interested in playing that style.
I wanted to play the three-finger style,
[Eb] you know, the Earl Scruggs style.
_ _ And so I never did try the claw hammer, actually.
But I've been around banjos all my life.
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