i recently constructed my first gas can banjo, and to my amazement, it turned out great. i used an unfinished, fretless neck (not state of the art) and a vintage can found on ebay. for as much worry as i put into how this thing wasn't going to work out, it took less than a day and the mistakes were minimal. what i have now is a fully playable, fretless that stays in tune as good as my other banjos. my only problem now is the volume. it is too quiet. i believe that i am missing one vital component in making this a truly fun and practical banjo to play everyday. i think it has something to do with creating pressure in the can with the use of one (or more) cross dowel on the inside of the can. does this makes sense? if so, how do I get these dowels into the can? do i drlll holes in the can to insert the dowels, or can i somehow spare the can and work through the spout at the top of the body?
this is no emergency, but i a looking forward to getting some serious sound out of this soon. i included a few photos in case that could help with advice. thanks for reading.