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IAN DAVIDSON INSTRUMENTS 1. Ian Davidson works on an electric banjo in the shop he built in the garage next to his home in Manilla. Like Colin Vance, Davidson learned to build banjos and guitars working at Wildwood Banjos and Manufacturing. The instrument is a custom order for Todd Fink, a member of a Midwestern rock/bluegrass hybrid combo known as The Giving Tree Band.
Quintet. He built the hybrid instrument when the band added a drummer and he found he needed more volume.
2. Removing the back reveals a pickup attached to the banjo’s drum-like head; there’s another electric guitar-style pickup built into the bridge. 3. Davidson stands atop a Manila sand dune, strumming an electric banjo he made for himself. Davidson plays in the “kinetic gypsy jamgrass” outfit Absynth
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18 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2013 • northcoastjournal.com