Other direction from banjo?

[MontanaMatt]

I know of mando-banjo, uke-banjo, and guitar-banjo hybrids.
Does it ever go the other way? Is there a five string mando bodied banjo? Or tiny five string use bodied banjos?
Just had too much thinking time today!

[CarlM]

I have played a Dobro bodied banjo that a friend of mine has. It sounded unexpectedly nice.

[David L]

"Banjo" is (probably) derived from "banger", which alludes to the loud sound, not the string arrangement. So "banjo" is defined by the head. There are tenor banjos, plectrum banjos, fretless banjos, and five-string banjos. Which would you use on a guitar or uke body?

[AndyV]

I posted a pic of a Pollman in ebay/craigslist a few weeks go.

[MontanaMatt]

I posted a pic of a Pollman in ebay/craigslist a few weeks go.

What's a Pollman?...
Just googled...sounds great...why not more of those? Any contemporary builds?

BTW, typo in original post, should be a "tiny uke bodied banjo?"

[HonketyHank]

I know there has been a banjo-lute -- five string banjo neck and a sortakinda lute body. Actually the body looked more like a a Big Muddy / Mid Missouri.

[Br1ck]

I think people want to make other things out of banjos, the other way, not so much.

[dhergert]

Gold Tone makes a banjola, a 5-string banjo neck on an A style mandola-size body.

[allenhopkins]

I've got one of each: a Pollman "mandoline banjo," with a five-string neck on a flat top mandola body, made around the turn of the 20th century; a Gold tone "banjola," the modern equivalent, and actually a very nicely made instrument; and a five-string Dobro, a small resonator body with a five-string banjo neck.

Oddly enough, the resonator on the "Dobro banjo" is actually of the biscuit-bridge variety, more commonly found on National resonator instruments than Dobros. My late friend Bernie Stolls tried my five-string Dobro at a folk camp years ago, and fell in love with the sound; he got Scheerhorn to build him a custom instrument, and recorded a CD with it.

Of the three, the old Pollman (it's labeled "Polmini" which perhaps was a concession to the Italianate mandolin-buying public) is the hardest to work with. It has all un-geared metal "friction" pegs, which are hard to tune, and it's extremely lightly built, although it will take light-gauge steel banjo strings. The Gold Tone is more solid, has modern geared pegs all around, and nice fit and finish. The Dobro has an odd-ish sound, sorta midway between a Dobro and a National, but all the "modern conveniences": geared pegs, sliding 5th-string capo, quality hardware, nice neck. It also came with a gigundous rectangular case, probably a modified Strat case or similar, which weighs approximately a ton. I assume the body's plywood, but that's not a real issue with resonator instruments; the sound comes from the cone.

So, just as there are various banjo-bodied instruments, there are hybrids that combine five-string-banjo necks and tuning with mandolin-family bodies, and with resonator "technology." Of course, National and Dobro made quite a few four-string instruments, which could be tuned like tenor or plectrum banjos, so "crossover" between banjo playing, and mandolin or guitar sounds, is not rare at all -- just rarer when you're talking five-string banjos.

[AndyV]

Gold Tone makes a banjola, a 5-string banjo neck on an A style mandola-size body.

GT also makes the Dojo.

[AndyV]

https://abbotsford.craigslist.ca/msg...674085396.html

[MontanaMatt]

https://abbotsford.craigslist.ca/msg...674085396.html

That's a special one