c.1905 Bruno "The Vernon" Banjo Mandolin

Here's a picture from last spring for this spring! I sure do miss the little flowers and the clover, that's for sure... but at least it's getting green again up here "in de moontins." This is a very cool banjo-mandolin that I think ended up being shipped to Cyprus. It's more-or-less original, being a mixup of parts from two of the same model from around the same time. Though it bears no label, it originally had a badge on the headstock, and I've seen this type often sold by the New York distributor Bruno under their "The Vernon" brand.

It's a petite banjo-mando of the old style, having a small banjo-uke sized spunover rim with a raised wooden tonering. The scale length is typical, though: 13" -- regular for the time.

And here it is face-forward.


And the stern...


Original bakelite pegs cleaned up very nicely and functioned well.


Headstock front. New plastic nut. Rosewood veneer, too.


Ebony board with pearl dots, original frets, a bit beat up.

I installed a new thick-skin head which had an almost purple cast to it which looked really cool. Tailpiece is a typical mandolin-style type. The bridge is a 3/4" 5-string Grover banjo bridge which I've recut.

Side.


The hardware turned out nice and gleaming on this little guy.


Simple neck brace.


Pot detail.

Pot detail: see that purple hue to the skin? The thicker new skin helped tone down some of the really brutal harshness typical of banjo-mandolins. The extra-light strings helped, too. This one had a really, really nice "clop-clop" or "horsey" sound to it but still had plenty of volume to bite through guitars or whatnot. Really enjoyed the tone.

Tailpiece-up.

Back of the pot again.