Ran across this small banjo on Reverb. Any thoughts on what it is intended to be?
https://reverb.com/item/6762363-antique-banjo-1890-1930
Ran across this small banjo on Reverb. Any thoughts on what it is intended to be?
https://reverb.com/item/6762363-antique-banjo-1890-1930
This is the second time I've seen this posted recently (the other was on Facebook I think, maybe it was here). I have no clue but I don't think it was made in the US.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Wow. No ideas on what it is, but it might be worth a drive just to see if it plays.
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banjolinetto?
I looks like a banjo-head Puerto Rican 10 string cuatro to me
Interesting!... all banjolin-ish with 5 courses... very interesting!
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Hmm 9 strings, just noticed that. Banjo-waldzither?
It has a nut for 5 two string courses, but only 9 tuners. If it is strung as a right handed instrument, it looks like the highest string is a single string. The next two courses may be strung as octaves. Then, where one would expect the lowest strings are two courses that look like very light guage. Strange.
ps: I bet Elderly does not have replacement heads for it in stock.
editted to add the following:
Seller has quite a few non-typical-USA stringed instruments up for sale.
New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.
Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).
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Lol! True though. With that shape, any potential head replacements would definitely involve starting out with a blank piece of calfskin (or other suitable material depending on one's interests, e.g. are there moisture-resistant and/or vegan banjo head blanks nowadays?? etc). For posterity, here's the shape of the instrument being discussed:
Also, I would think that it might be a little tricky to get that head tensioned *evenly* across the entire surface. I've always thought banjo-head instruments sounded better when the tension was even, instead of hit-or-miss tightening of the tension hardware. Maybe it wouldn't be as difficult as I'd first thought though, as upon closer inspection there aren't very many brackets on this particular instrument... so maybe not quite as difficult as trying to get even tension when tightening spokes on a bike wheel (or standard banjo rim with lots of brackets, basically the same principle) ... or would it be *more* complicated due to the odd shape?
"Interesting"
Mandroid?
Sorry Mandroid, it just came to mind.
Maybe a "mandborg"/"cyberlin"?
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
I wonder if it uses reentrant tuning? The small diameter plain strings at the extreme bass side surely couldn't be anything other than a reentrant high course.
As for the tuners, I can't figure this out. The bass side of the peghead obviously has 5-on-a-plate tuners, but only 4 visible tuning posts in the slotted peghead. One string seems to go towards the end of the peghead and disappears into a hole in the wood. None of the pictures seem to indicate where the hidden post is, or how the heck you would actually string it. Can anyone make sense of that?
It is indeed an interesting and unique instrument. If I had money to burn, I'd buy it just for the unique aspect. And I absolutely LOVE the case!
Keep that skillet good and greasy all the time!
If you look at the pic of the back of the headstock the top tuner shaft is visible with it's hole. On the front you just see the hole for the string to go into.
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No ideas, but they know it's worth 2K?No idea who made this or what period it comes from, or what type of music it was used for but a unique and charming banjo.
Living’ in the Mitten
OK, I see now. For some reason, when I looked at it before, it looked like just a grommet or rivet head on the back of solid wood. Now I can see that it's actually the tuner post with the string hole. It was a big "duh" moment for me.
So what's the deal with that neck splice just below the peghead? Was this the original neck that got broken and repaired, or is it a replacement neck? Or perhaps both? The wood of the neck looks too clean and freshly finished to be original, and the way the dark peghead wood is spliced into it is sort of amateurish. But then that other splice below it looks like a repair of a snapped neck to me. Thoughts?
Keep that skillet good and greasy all the time!
They are following the old eBay adage 'If the local guitar/ antique shop does not know what it is then it must be worth a fortune'.
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mainly Irish & Scottish but open to all dance-oriented melodic music.
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just the case is fantastic. it is a sort of persian tar crossed with a waldzither that married an english style banjo.
I suspect it is a failed sort of parlor instrument: it's a mix of everything, isn't it: banjo, guitar, mandolin, violin (check out the scroll on the headstock).
A part of me wants to suggest it European, but US makes a lot of sense. or even South American...
Lovely, lovely instrument though.
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I don't think it was US made. That headstock is screaming European to me.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I know three things about it, for sure:
1. It's a very cool piece.
2. There is no way I would pay $2,000 for it.
3. Not only does Elderly not have replacement heads for it (or Stewart-MacDonald for that matter), but Mel Bay doesn't have an instruction book for it either!
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