Open 7 Days

Monday - Friday 11am-7pm Saturday & Sunday 11am-5pm  

Thursday Bluegrass Jam 7-9pm   

Monday Bluegrass Jam 7-10pm   

11 S. White St.

Frankfort, IL 60423

Located in “The Trolley Barn”

(815) 469-6321  

Other Instruments

In what was once a one room school house, built on the side of Heard's Mountain in 1900, where sons and daughters of those who worked in the mountainside apple orchards learned their "3 Rs" and minded their "P's and Q's", you will now find a myriad of woodworking equipment, handtools, and supplies suitable for creating the world's finest banjos and other stringed instruments. The young students have long since been replaced by seasoned luthiers who are known around the world as the master craftsmen of Stelling Banjo Works.

Since 1959, while still in high school, Geoff Stelling has been either playing the banjo or trying to improve on its design. Stelling Banjo Works was established in 1974 while Geoff was stationed at a Naval Base in San Diego. As a semi-professional banjo and bass player in various bluegrass bands since the mid-60's, Geoff developed an ear for banjo tone and experimented with the mechanics of banjo construction until he patented a revolutionary design that his banjos are famous for today: the wedge-fitted pot assembly. Prior to Geoff's design, tone rings and flanges were machined to slip-fit over the wood rim. Such a design proved to be less than perfect when changes of humidity and temperature manifested themselves as changes in tone and volume. The patented Stelling wedge-fit assures the best possible tone ring and flange to wood rim fit possible under all circumstances. The resulting purity of tone and unrelenting power are unparalleled.