Banj-ola

[jan281969]

Tuned C-G-D-A for you mandola buffs !

[fred d]

that is just standard banjo tuning I yune mine GDAE

[Jake Wildwood]

...also known as a tenor banjo in standard tuning.

That one, particularly, looks like a Gretsch/Clarophone c. mid 1920s.

[journeybear]

Looks like it could benefit from a little sprucing up. Sandblasting, perhaps?

I kid, I kid! I'm sure it's a fine instrument. And yes, I would say it's a tenor banjo. A banjola would have to have double strings, by my reckoning. And a mute - it would be thunderingly loud. My banjolin was deadly up to thirteen paces.

[mandroid]

name 'Banjola' is usually applied to a wooden flattop A shape bodied instrument ,

with a 5 string banjo neck..

[jan281969]

I could not tell you the Name Brand of it but it plays and sounds very good.Fun to play.A gentleman in upstate New York gave it to me in the early 90s and I ended up tuning like a mandola.Mandolin tuning was improbable.

[journeybear]

Mandola tuning is correct for this instrument. I have a steel tenor guitar and that's how I tune it. I really couldn't play it otherwise. I would say that mandolin tuning would be impossible, actually!

[catmandu2]

If you want GDAE ("Irish") tuning, simply acquire the requisite string set--sets are readily available.

[Jake Wildwood]

Sets are available but that tuning is an octave below mandolin on tenor banjo... in the range of an octave mandolin... as opposed to true mandolin range, which is, I think, impossible with our current string technology...

[KanMando]

This is a 17 fret or short scale "Irish" tenor banjo. In addition to the standard "mandola" tuning you are using now, you could keep the existing strings and tune it up a whole step to D-A-E-B. *Note: Don't try this with a standard scale 19 fret instrument.

Bob