c.1920 British-made Banjo Mandolin
This is a British-made banjo mandolin, c.1920 or so, with a "zither banjo" style suspended-in-rim-on-brackets head mount. This rim design gives a projecting, focused, and loud sound but not a lot of bottom end -- so as expected this has a sort of spidery tight sound that cuts real well but isn't as mellow as a typical American instrument.
I worked on this same mandolin a while back for a customer, but since then its been oversprayed on the rim and headstock and the neck reverse has been refinished natural. Also, a new tie-dyed sort of head was installed (all not on my watch). I received this in a trade and did a setup on it, light fret dress, and recut a vintage bridge to be a compensated-style banjo mando bridge.
It plays great, has a fun tone, and has a wider neck which makes a lot of chord forms much more accessible up and down the neck vs. a typical 1920s neck from the time (typically only 1 1/8 or less at the nut and narrow right to the heel). This sort of feels like a Gibson mando-banjo Jr model ("MB-JR") in terms of tone and playability, but with a sort of springier shorter scale and more sustain.
It plays great, has a fun tone, and has a wider neck which makes a lot of chord forms much more accessible up and down the neck vs. a typical 1920s neck from the time (typically only 1 1/8 or less at the nut and narrow right to the heel). This sort of feels like a Gibson mando-banjo Jr model ("MB-JR") in terms of tone and playability, but with a sort of springier shorter scale and more sustain.
The nut has a broken bit on the A string pair but the pair still has slotting room left.
Ebony boards, pearlo dots, frets are freshly dressed.
This green/swirly dyed head looks pretty snazzy on this pot.
I recut this old bridge from my parts bin with a compensated top for mandolin stringing.
Tuners work great.
I always liked the cool metal "dot" in the middle of these zither-style rims.
Fun "British Made" tag.
And it says "English Make" on the tailpiece as well. Note the typical Euro-style "strap button."
And it has its original case as well.
Brass-plate tuners work dandy.
Comments
The whole lot has then been rebranded and over stamp with: Beresford School of Music.
Luckily, the original stamp is still very readable.
I had it modified with a new bridge giving it a better action and rather than eight steel strings had four ukulele strings tuned GCEA.
I retained the original bridge in case I decide to part with it - which will only be at my death - and the next bugger wishes to convert it back to a banjo-mandolin for some reason.
It converted to a magnificent ukulele banjo with a great soundauthdr and very loud.