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Larry S Sherman
Jun-20-2008, 11:57am
I have seen a few pics in several forums, but maybe this would be a good place to compare banjo styles and to comment on features, volume, tunings, etc?

I have one tenor banjo, an Orpheum #3 Special. It's fairly fancy, with a carved neck heel and some nice inlay. It's an open back (built in the pre-resonator days).

I tune it GDAE...octave mandolin style, and play the same material I would on a mandolin, although older jazzy stuff and ragtime sounds best. I don't play Irish stuff...at least not yet.

Larry

Larry S Sherman
Jun-20-2008, 12:01pm
The neck is made out of holly wood.

Larry S Sherman
Jun-20-2008, 12:05pm
My buddy brought over his Orpheum #1

Larry S Sherman
Jun-20-2008, 12:06pm
The two together:

Celtic Saguaro
Jun-20-2008, 3:30pm
Here's my B&D, the same one in my avatar
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/cactuswatcher/Odds%20and%20ends/BDa.jpg

Celtic Saguaro
Jun-20-2008, 3:33pm
The Senorita was a budget model, but mine has a few extras I haven't seen on others like a tone ring. #The head stock has a big C on it, but I haven't seen any references to a C model Senorita.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/cactuswatcher/Odds%20and%20ends/BDb.jpg

Celtic Saguaro
Jun-20-2008, 3:41pm
It's a 19 fretter. I tune it GDAE. #The action is high for tuning it CGDA, but it's fine with regular tenor banjo strings tuned octave mandolin style. I'm not sure the geared tuners are original. #But they've been on it a long time. #The tail piece is a replacement, a Paramount style which I moved from another banjo.

From the Serial #, I believe this tenor banjo is from the late 1920's and thus before the time of the Gretsch takeover of Bacon.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/cactuswatcher/Odds%20and%20ends/BDc.jpg

Chris Biorkman
Jun-20-2008, 3:42pm
You know this isn't the Banjo Hangout, right? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Celtic Saguaro
Jun-20-2008, 3:44pm
They don't know about the GDAE secrets there, surely. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Thomaston
Jun-20-2008, 4:41pm
They don't know about the GDAE secrets there, surely. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
They have a section for styles other than bluegrass and old-time. It covers, Irish, jazz, whatever. There's a good number of tenor players over there... Mike Keyes is very active there in the Irish threads.
I just got back into playing the tenor myself, after focusing almost exclusively on tinwhistle for the last couple of years.
I got a Gold Tone IT-250 this week... lovely banjo so far. Mine is just like this one except mine came with a Renaissance head installed:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/tombanjo/gt-it-1.jpg

Celtic Saguaro
Jun-20-2008, 6:08pm
Just joking with the person who brought it up.

lucho
Jun-20-2008, 6:39pm
I do have three tenor banjoes, a 17th fret Vega little Wonder TB (1929), a 19th fret Roy Smeck Harmopny TB (1950?), and because of its nice case I just bought another 19th fret english Lorenzo TB. You could see photos of my banjo collection with comments about its history in my hometown Valparaiso, Chile at http://festivalpo.blogspot.com/2008/04/banjo-era.html. I do play them mostly stringed as GDAE, using fiberskin and standard remo heads. Formerly I used skin heads but when you change location tuning and humidity play against its use... and fiberskin is not that bad....

Larry S Sherman
Jun-20-2008, 7:32pm
You could see photos of my banjo collection with comments about its history in my hometown Valparaiso, Chile at http://festivalpo.blogspot.com/2008/04/banjo-era.html.
There's a problem with your link. I think it will work from here. (http://festivalpo.blogspot.com/2008/04/banjo-era.html)

Larry

Spruce
Jun-20-2008, 7:47pm
"My buddy brought over his Orpheum #1"

I love my 1918 Orpheum #1....
Here's a pic:

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/DCP_2648.jpg

steve V. johnson
Jun-20-2008, 11:16pm
You can see a bit of the one I have in the May Bell Queen thread. I'll post some more pix when I get it back, it just had its tuners
modernized.

The two Orprheums are really interesting, I really like how the headstocks are different, the #3 is so nicely articulated from the #1,
and they still look distinctively alike! Very cool.

Boy O boy, there are some fancy banjos out there... A friend of mine had a job once photographing some tenor banjos for an estate
sale. The fellow who had passed had more than a dozen, and most of them were really encrusted with gold and MOP. Amazing.

Thomaston, I recommended a Gold Tone CCIT "Irish tenor" banjo for a friend and she's carried among several continents, it's needed
very little care and sounds great. All manner of banjo mavens have oooh'd and aaah'd over the sound and playability of it. The Gold
Tone tenors can be very good.

Mike Keyes introduced me to the Banjo Hangout because I was looking for information on replacing the tuners on the '20's May Bell
Queen, and the folks over there were just about as nice and well-informed as folks here, and generous with their infos, too. Nice joint.
There seem to be plenty of tenor banjo folks there.

Many thanks,

stv

Pete Martin
Jun-21-2008, 2:01am
Bacon and Day Silver Bell Montana #3.

Larry S Sherman
Jun-21-2008, 5:09am
Bacon and Day Silver Bell Montana #3.
Nice leg-operated mute!

Thomaston
Jun-21-2008, 9:24am
Just joking with the person who brought it up.
Oh, I know. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif It is mostly for 5-string players; I was just being anal at the time.

Michael Wolf
Jun-21-2008, 10:41am
"My buddy brought over his Orpheum #1"

I love my 1918 Orpheum #1....
Here's a pic:

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/DCP_2648.jpg
[QUOTE]

I first thought that this is a picture of a early Raggaeband, since the Tenor Banjo played a central role in the development of the Raggae in the early years.

KanMando
Jun-21-2008, 11:00am
Here's a 20's Slingerland May Bell Recording Nite Hawk I've owned for over thirty years.

Bob

Bob DeVellis
Jun-21-2008, 6:54pm
Here's an overall shot of my 1922 Vega Style X no. 9, a short-neck tenor.


.

Bob DeVellis
Jun-21-2008, 6:56pm
Here's a detail of the nicely engraved peghead.


.

Bob DeVellis
Jun-21-2008, 6:57pm
And, finally, the heel carving.


.

fatt-dad
Jun-28-2008, 9:33am
Just don't ask me what it is. Maybe a Guild from the 30s?

f-d

Doug Edwards
Jun-28-2008, 10:02am
Air tenor banjo.

Ever heard of Cole & Dunnae of Chicago?

steve V. johnson
Jun-28-2008, 10:14am
Great pix, thanks!

Man, some of these are so pretty, quite fancy! Wow!

I posted some pix in the May Bell Queen thread, so I won't post 'em here. It's
pretty humble compared to these, tho...

Thanks,

stv