• Home /
  • Search results for: '' /
  • Doc's Banjos
Body(s):
Back & Sides:
Top:

Doc's Banjos Learn More +

Doc's Banjos
Doc's Banjos is a family business located in the foothills of the Coast Range Mountains south of Dallas, Oregon. Doc and his wife Florisel build the banjos and run the business while children Natalia, Warner, and Jasper often test the durability of the instruments. Patrick Doc Huff got his nickname as an Army Combat Medic in Vietnam at the age of 17. Doc's experience with war casualties, tropical medicine, and indigenous peoples while serving in Vietnam inspired him to become a doctor, and ultimately led him back into full-time refugee and disaster work in developing countries. In the 1980s, Doc began doing socio-humanitarian work in the major refugee situations around the world. Providing refugee and disaster relief in 14 different countries over the years as a volunteer, Doc ultimately left his rural practice in the states to do full-time work overseas. Doc studied Tropical Medicine at the University of London in 1998, then went back out into the world, spending 10 years doing socio-humanitarian work and tropical medicine. In 2008, Doc and his family returned from West Africa to build banjos full time--a much safer passion. (After 10 years of full-time indigenous tropical medicine and sustainable development, Doc just couldn't see himself in a stateside clinic). A woodworker since youth, Doc became intimately familiar with the quality hardwoods he encountered while working in the tropics. Docs banjos are designed and destined to become heirlooms.
In the 1980s, I began doing socio-humanitarian work in the major refugee situations around the world. I ultimately left my stateside rural practice to do full-time work overseas. This work included disaster response and refugee camps, as a result of famine and wars. I have played banjo for over 26 years, started with 3-finger picking and a few years later, old-time frailing music. I have a passion for all of the banjo styles of music. Then I met Florisel…the love of my life! We met while serving in Honduras, doing medical relief work after hurricane Mitch nearly wiped out her country! We married in 1999, ready to go back out into the world. We moved to England in 2000. I studied and receive a degree in Tropical Medicine at the University of London, then we moved “back out” into the world, as a family, full-time, over a 10-year period, doing socio-humanitarian work and tropical medicine and disaster response. Over this 10-year period, I was “cutting my teeth” making banjos part-time. In 2009, we returned home from West Africa to build banjos full time—a much safer passion. Florisel is an integral part of the business. She brings creative talent, quality control, and most importantly support and a passion for what we are producing. Natalia is learning the fiddle and banjo and accompanies me at most of the music festivals we attend. Warner and Jasper both have traveling banjos, and both are learning the fiddle. All of them enjoy coming to the shop to help out, create, and to look for choice cut-offs. They have a great eye for beautiful wood to make things from.

Patrick Huff's work is stellar; the man's dedication to carving, intonation, and innovation is astounding. These banjos are a category unto themselves, and his family business model is a successful, if sadly rare these days, example of down to earth woodworking.
Dallas, Oregon
Joe Steiner
Soprano
There are currently no guitars from this maker in stock. Please view our current inventory here, or request us to find you one from this maker.

1 Item(s)

per page

Grid  List 

1
BACK TO TOP