c.1870 Fretless Piccolo 5-String Banjo

Here's something I don't get through the shop that often -- this is a home-made fretless banjo, probably c.1870 (or possibly earlier), that I found marked as a "toy banjo" hanging on an antique store wall. I had my suspicions about that label right off the bat: the rim is made from what appears to be the leftovers of a grain measure, the neck has the old "boat heel" cut, the nut slot and nut itself are cut just like old minstrel banjos, and everything is hand-made, down to the tuner pegs and peculiar hardware.

The whole neck has been stained a medium-dark crimson color (the photos show it a little lighter, due to the brilliant sunset light) and it has acquired nice patina over the ages. I've cut slots in the nut as it had ones that were far, far too shallow for any sort of playability before.

You can see here the simplicity of the build -- the fifth string "pip" is simply a tiny nail that holds the string to the side of the fingerboard, which might be a replacement for something that was there before, but may be original, too. The strings are a set of Aquila nylgut uke strings, plus an extra wound nylgut string for the lowest note. The scale length is approximately 15" -- and tuned to cGCEG (a five string banjo tuned up to C or a low-G uke with an extra drone and the A string tuned down to a G...) -- it sounds great. Plucky, mellow, sweet, and seriously old-timey.

The head appears to be original or at least as old as the strings I found on it: the strings that were on this guy were steel strings of c.1890s vintage and had the strange wound-up "ball ends" of the time, that also worked as loop ends, too. I have identical (but much better condition) strings in some packets from the time.

I believe that this was definitely intended for gut strings when it was made: the sheet-metal cut-out tailpiece originally had tabs (3 remain and have been squashed flat, and 2 were broken) on the underside of it that would have held knotted gut string ends. Someone has since poked holes in the top for steel string ball ends.

Side view.

Funky hand-cut pegs. I imagine a couple of these are replacements... or perhaps the builder ran out of the right color! Either way, someone took great care to fit them correctly, as they turn and hold very nicely with smooth, tapered shafts.

Back.


Back of headstock.

Cool boat heel, typical for the time. I've shimmed it with a piece of scrap rosewood on the upper side to get better action, as the warped pot had put things out of order a little bit. As it is, this banjo was home-made (probably "down on the farm") and most likely had some peculiarities in the first place. It plays comfortably, though, and is super lightweight to boot.

Back of the pot. The dowel actually looks like a scrap piece of a chair back (possibly).

Mounting hardware is quite simple, and a sheet-metal band encircles the rim, which is unstained and unfinished.

Back.


"Art shot."

I've not decided if the tensioning hardware is original or not. Typically the fittings on these guys were brass, but these could have easily been hardware store modifications.

Fun tailpiece.