Vintage Folk Art Banjo - Early Hardware!
Added 2019-12-18 01:30:05 +0000 UTCf# D F# A D relative.
This banjo could have been made any time from about 1880 - 1950. It's unusual for several reasons, firstly, both the neck and steam-bent rim are made of pine. Secondly, the thin brass hardware is very similar to McManus' 1879 patent for bottom-mounting banjo brackets. In other words, it could be 1870s hardware, which is rare and considered "early" by historical researchers and collectors.
It's a great sounding banjo, if a little quiet (it is pine after all), and quite easy to play. This instrument is in a private collection and is not for sale at this time.
"When John Henry was a baby boy
Sitting on his mamma's knee,
Said that Oak Mountain Tunnel on the Georgia Road
It's gonna be the death of me (x2)"
[Thanks to Art Rosenbaum for informing that John Henry most likely died near the Oak Mountain Tunnel near Leeds, Alabama.]
Comments
That is a common failing of homemade banjos. I hit the strings very hard, so if I hit the bass as hard as I want on this banjo it rings off the thumb string pip. "Shit happens."
Clifton Hicks
2019-12-19 16:44:11 +0000 UTC🤣 Not easy.
Clifton Hicks
2019-12-19 16:42:47 +0000 UTCCoke oven march on a fretless, my arch nemesis
Patrick Campbell
2019-12-19 00:41:19 +0000 UTCOn the first Hicks style banjo that I built (still my favorite), I got the neck a bit too narrow, and the pip for the fifth string is really close to the fourth string...I see that this one is similar. Does it cause any trouble for you to play it? I've sort of developed the habit of pushing that fourth string toward the third string, as I finger it.
Bisbonian
2019-12-18 16:16:39 +0000 UTC
