1920s Slingerland-Style Tenor Banjo (Baritone Uke Setup)

This extra-plain-Jane tenor banjo is unmarked but identical to student-level Slingerland, Concertone, or MayBell tenor banjos. It has a fast, thin neck with no fretboard and a slightly-undersized (10 3/4") rim with no tonering. While these make OK tenor banjos, I'm of the opinion that they make better baritone banjo ukuleles. Because the scale is longer than the average 19-20" barione uke, too, one can use all-plain nylon/fluorocarbon string sets to good use as well.

This instrument was traded-in to me towards work and parts, and so I set about adjusting it to become a "baritone banjo uke." Work included a fret seating and level/dress, cleaning, a replacement 5/8" vintage bridge, a replacement (older) Remo synthetic head, an additional bolt-reinforcement for the neck joint, replacement vintage friction pegs (they're nice, spring-loaded ones that turn smoothly and hold well), and a good setup. It has a straight neck, plays with hair-above 1/16" action at the 12th fret (spot on for bari strings), and has an excellent, full, woody tone.

Specs are: 20 15/16" scale, 1 1/4" nut width, 1" string spacing at the nut, 1 3/8" spacing at the bridge, 10 3/4" rim, and 2 1/2" depth. The neck has a flat board and a soft C/V, mild-to-medium thickness rear profile.

Materials are: maple neck, ply maple rim with birdseye maple veneer, figured-maple dowel, and all-original hardware save replacement period tuners, replacement period bridge, and replacement parts-bin Remo head. I'm actually pretty surprised at how clean this instrument is, too, as most of these old student-level banjos are truly beat after kicking-around attics and closets.

The frets are nickel-silver and the nut is wood.

I added plastic side dots to the neck, though the face-dots are pearl.

I'm using a D'Addario EJ99TLG tenor ukulele string set which is an all-plain (no wound strings), fluorocarbon set meant for low G tuning on a uke. At baritone scale this tunes-down to normal baritone-uke DGBE just fine. I was hesitant to try the D'Addario fluoro strings after being a dedicated Worth or Martin user, but I have to admit that they're very good and very stable. Having access to sets with an unwound 41-gauge fluorocarbon string is useful, too.

The 1910s-era friction pegs have spring-loaded sections in them that mean they hold and turn smoothly compared to average friction pegs. They're like a scaled-up version of the popular Waverly friction pegs (both the vintage and repro StewMac versions).

The foam stuffed behind the dowel just dampens overtones in the head a little bit. Note that the original neck brace is still extant, though it's made redundant by the simple drywall screw above it. I find the screw approach way more practical for the vast majority of players these days who tend to let maintenance slide.

The tail accepts loop or ball-end strings or tied-on, too.