c.1915 Lyon & Healy Banjo Mando/Uke Conversion

This started life as a c.1915 Lyon & Healy nice-quality catalog-style banjo mandolin... you know... 8 steel strings, mandolin tuning, etc. It was in really great overall shape save the tailpiece was broken and the fretboard extension was pretty messed up by a poor repair job. The frets had also been replaced really sloppily and various paints were applied to the neck to cover said poor repairs.

I decided to convert this fellow over to a nice large-pot banjo ukulele and cut the botched fretboard extension off, leaving the first 12 frets just like an old 1920s soprano uke. I plugged the extra holes in the headstock with some dowels that I inked black to match the headstock veneer. They're simply in by friction so if someone wants to reconvert this someday it'll be easy going.

The scale length on this is 14" so it feels like a concert uke and uses concert uke strings (Aquila nylgut at the moment). At any rate... the resulting conversion has made the sweetest-sounding, fullest-sounding banjo uke I've yet to play. This is probably a result of the double-spun rim (thin maple rim with German silver cladding "spun" over the top and bottom with steel hoops inside, which makes an integral tonering) and also a result of the large (for a banjo uke) head size of 9 3/4" diameter. The original skin head can't hurt, either!

All the hardware is original save the tailpiece (a 1920s repro plain-Jane tailpiece), end bolt for the tailpiece, bridge, and the new uke-style friction pegs at the headstock.

Materials for the instrument include: ebony fretboard, headstock veneer and heel cap... nicely figured maple neck, maple pot and dowel with German silver exterior. New bone nut.

Those doweled-in holes are actually harder to see in reality. These photos betray them a lot more than the eyes do. Cool moon & star headstock MOP inlay.

...and nice ebony board with snowflake-style diamond inlay. I've dressed all the frets.

New 5/8" Grover "Non-Tip" bridge. The straight maple with no saddle of harder wood is perfect for gut/nylon/fluorocarbon strings. No harshness.

From the back.

New Grover pegs.

Ebony heel cap with MOP inlaid star.

Neck brace with original ebony shims.

The pot and hardware are in nearly as-new condition. You could use it as a mirror!

Overall, a fun little banjo uke. It's barely heavier than a standard-issue smaller-pot 1920s Slingerland banjo uke but has tone sweeter and bigger than any of the smaller-pot regular banjo ukes. You could also use this instrument as a "banjolin" -- ie, 4-string banjo mandolin -- or use steel ukulele strings on it. I think the unique tone of the nylgut/gut with this size head and at banjo uke tuning is pretty nice, however, and quite individual to this instrument.