Mandolin-banjo

[Rik]

Years ago I used to own a Mandolin-Banjo... it wasn't long before I stopped playing it due to the horrendous tone,high action,very short neck and the thing going out of tune (normally during playing)

:-~

It wan't until last week that I heard someone playing one...and the memories flooded back!

:-(

'They belong in a skip' I thought; then I wondered if a buider had designed one which sounded decent; with the exact same scale length/neck width/action/ angle of neck in relation to body etc, etc as an F5 Mandolin?

[Jim Garber]

I have a vintage Weymann with a small pot, like 8 inches and it sounds pretty good. I have to make a new bridge for it tho. I have to check my scale length but I would not think that a std Gibson scale 13 7/8 would make all that much of a difference. Mine sounds good with a sklin head which does mellow the percussiveness.

[Ken Berner]

Banjos of any type are mechanical monsters, as there are so many metal parts. My last mandolin banjo purchase was a 1922 Fairbanks-Vega Style S, the rim of which is now attached to a 5-string neck. I am now searching for a suitable rim for a restored neck that I have been working on. There are a few things you might try in softening the tone besides stuffing something between the head and dowel stick (or rod/s). A heavier or thicker bridge made from mahogany, heavier tailpiece, fiberskyn head, etc., and you might loosen the head just a tad. If you have an adjustable tailpiece, don't crank it down so much that it brightens the tone too much. It is all trial and error, but fun to experiment with to achieve a decent tone.

[allenhopkins]

Tons of playable ones! I've heard good things about the new Gold Tone instruments, though I haven't played one. Bernunzio here in Rochester (http://www.bernunzio.com/new_result.php?type=Mandolin) is listing about eight banjo-mandolins, many from the Tsumura collection, in various price ranges -- by Fairbanks, Vega, Orpheum etc.

Inherently, the banjo-mandolin is a raucous instrument, not suitable for playing at 3 a.m. in your apartment building. Natural skin or Fiberskyn heads are not as trebly-sounding as regular mylar; instruments without resonators don't project as loudly as those with resonators. Not cranking the head tension and the tailpiece angle to the "max" will moderate the volume. And honestly, there's nothing wrong with muting the sound by putting a cloth or sponge inside the shell, in contact with the head; lots of old-time banjo players have done it -- so did Pete Seeger!

[Rik]

Hi Jim,

I wondered if it is possible to play up the neck (around the 12th fret)...making crosspicking possible?

Rik

[Red Henry]

Recent results indicate that the MB can be tamed with a mahogany bridge, which yields a much more pleasant, plunky tone. With the neck set right and a suitable bridge, the MB can be fun to play instead of an earache!

Red.

[mandroid]

And don't be afraid to lose 4 strings off of it.

As a 4 string it can work well, melody-banjo, in a soprano voice,

Irish tuned tenor is a bit deeper banjo voice.

[allenhopkins]

Recent results indicate that the MB can be tamed with a mahogany bridge, which yields a much more pleasant, plunky tone. With the neck set right and a suitable bridge, the MB can be fun to play instead of an earache!

Red.
And Red's too modest to mention that he sells such a bridge.

[Ken Berner]

In all honesty, that is why I mentioned a mahogany bridge; Red had raised that subject over on BanjoHangout. That is a great web site for banjoists of all kinds, although most are probably 5-stringers. I still use a natural sea sponge to dampen (pardon that) the sharpness on my banjo. That is something else you can toy with, as they are found with varied denseness; of course you can use a diaper (ugh), socks, but a g-string just won't work (I couldn't resist)!!!

[ChrisWallace]

Just a quick recommendation for John Bernunzio (mentioned earlier in the thread).

I bought a tenor banjo from him a couple years ago and he was great to work with. Very knowledgable and will point you in the right direction.

Good luck!

[Neil Gladd]

I have a vintage Weymann with a small pot, like 8 inches and it sounds pretty good. I have to make a new bridge for it tho. I have to check my scale length but I would not think that a std Gibson scale 13 7/8 would make all that much of a difference. Mine sounds good with a sklin head which does mellow the percussiveness.
I also have a Weyman, and it sounds better than most of the mandolin-banjos I have heard. When the original banjo-style bridge broke, I replaced it with a mandolin bridge, and it improved the tone even more. (More like a mandolin + less like a banjo = better.) http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Smiley Pockets]

There are lots of great vintage MBs out there. I have two old 20's Gibsons: an MB-1 and an MB-4. Both are great! The 4 has a mellower tone, I'm sure helped by the skin head. Both have kind of stiff actions, but are very playable.

Banjos are very mechanical, you just have to keep your wrench set near by to keep all those brackets tightened up.

Has anyone tuned their lower strings to octaves like some of the old blues players?

I have a Gold Tone Irish tenor banjo and just love it, so I'm assuming their mandolin-banjo sounds good too.

[8ch(pl)]

Is Mahogany OK for the wear and tear around the string slots, or should it be topped with ebony?

[Ken Berner]

No, but I have strung up G and D strings in octaves on one of my mandolins. This produces an interesting twist, particularly when cross-picking slow songs.

Ha! It is easier to have a wrench handy than it is to have a wench handy; most won't get near a banjoist.

I have to agree with the remarks about Bernunzio. Not only do they stock a fine array of vintage instruments, but are very friendly and helpful.

[mandroid]

Glen,
Anecdotal offering:
if that is a concern, I'd put bone on top, or perhaps small inserts around the strings.

My Ebony (got a ready-made bridge piece made for a flatiron flat top)
Bridge split out between the E strings, so outer one jumped on top of the other one.

side loading would vary with the width of the outermost strings at the tailpiece.

High E is, at pitch, under the highest tension of course.

no problem with the other 6 notches, at present.

[8ch(pl)]

I made a rather large bridge from Beech for my 1918 Fairbanks Vega Style K. It is about the same length as my Mid Missouri's bridge, but about 5/16 thick. I compensated it. Let you all know how it turns out.

It previously (for a year) had a converted string bridge. I had to change the neck angle, the neck was angled up away from the head instead of down.

It seems to have tamed the beast a bit. I had an old army sock stuffed up between the dowel stick and the skin. The light banjo bridge didn't seem to do it.

[JeffD]

Is the mandolin banjo anyone's primary instrument?

[Clyde Clevenger]

I also have a vintage Weyman that plays great and I just love playing it. However, most of my friends are not great fans of the Weyman. In my hands, it's an obnoxious little beast but I love it. Not at all like the Henwey.