1920s Kay/SV-made Resonator Tenor Banjo

This banjo was definitely the "scrabbly rascal" that came in on the coattails of the highfalutin Vega and Lange tenor banjo crowd that's recently walked in our doors. It was sans-resonator, has an old repair to its dowel, was missing a tailpiece, and had three different types of friction peg installed at the headstock.

It was made by Stromberg-Voisinet (later Kay) in the mid-'20s and has the old-fashioned shorter scale length and just enough trim to keep it smart from the front. It has a ply-maple (or is it poplar under the mahogany veneer?) rim and simple hoop tonering, so as you'd expect the tone is a little woodier and warmer than something with a heavy-duty, fancy ring.

Basically, I went-about getting this thing going to be a "player's" instrument as that's about what its lower-to-mid-grade level suggests -- practical, no frills, and with good sound and excellent playability -- hence the guitar tuners instead of a set of one of the dozen or so old friction peg sets I have hanging-around. This sounds nice flatpicked or fingerpicked and would probably work well with a lowered tuning if desired.

Work included: a fret level/dress, new Remo Renaissance "Elite" head, new bridge, new '50s-style Kluson-a-like tuners at the headstock, replacement parts-bin resonator, side dots install, replacement No-Knot tailpiece, cleaning, and a good setup. The neck is straight, it plays with spot-on 1/16" action at the 12th fret, and it's strung with 32w, 20w, 13, 9 gauges for CGDA (standard) tuning.

Scale length: 20 3/4
Nut width: 1 1/8"
String spacing at nut: 7/8"
String spacing at bridge: 1 5/16"

Head diameter: 11" with brand new Remo Renaissance Elite head

Side depth: 3 1/2"

Rim: ply poplar or maple with mahogany veneer
Neck wood: two-piece poplar or maple
Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck shape: flat board with medium, soft-V rear shape

Bridge: maple/ebony 5/8"

Nut: older bone

Tonering type: simple hoop ring

Condition notes: original rim hardware save tailpiece, replacement head and bridge, replacement resonator from my parts-bins (thanks whoever gave that to me!), replacement guitar-style tuners for ease-of-use.

The headstock veneer is ebonized maple, too.

The funky old '40s/'50s resonator probably came off of a Harmony or Kay banjo, so at least it's in the Chicago-made family.

I added damping foam at the string-ends near the tailpiece and also a small pad below the head inside the rim. This cuts minor overtones and cleans-up the sound towards better fundamentals.

Here's inside the rim -- showing the old repair to the dowel (it's still going strong).

The neck brace for this instrument was long-gone and someone had already drilled for a bolt-tightening of the neck's heel to the rim, so I just cleaned-up that predrill and installed my own screw instead.