c.1960 East German "Marma" Banjo Mandolin

This very European banjo mandolin was made in the 1960s in East Germany. Although it appears outwardly similar to German banjo mandolins from the 1920s (with the slotted headstock) it has a rim and resonator design more familiar to American instruments (as in, a normal banjo rim rather than a suspended-head zither style rim).

I picked this up in trade for some work I'm doing/have done on another banjo mandolin (also European, but French and 1920s) and my work on this one included a fret level/dress, new bone nut, cleaning, replacement tuner button plus tuner lube, and setup.

When leveling the frets I also leveled the zero fret at the same height as the others -- the way they're intended to be, but often aren't -- so in this case the zero fret is a real nice addition since it keeps tone similar up the neck and makes setup easier.

Nice rosewood board. The instrument otherwise appears to be made from dark-stained plain maple.

This has a 9" synthetic head which gives it some stability during wet weather.

New Grover maple/ebony bridge. I decided on the typical banjo-style bridge to make use of this instrument's smaller head size better. Typically I install a heavier mandolin-style bridge on banjo mandos to sweeten the tone.

Bound resonator.

Simple turns work well. I had to replace one missing button.

The resonator comes off with one bolt. "Under the hood" is a coordinator rod rather than a dowel which makes minor setup changes nice and easy.

I also had to replace a broken tailpiece. This is a simple new "A style" type from my parts bin.

Overall a nice and mellow but loud banjo mando with a 13" scale and great playability. With the bridge in the center of the head the instrument makes the most out of its smaller head and gets an overall warmer tone vs. many banjo mandos.