1920s Lange-made SS Stewart Style A Banjo-Mandolin

The SS Stewart brand was separated from its original New York factory output in the early 1900s and just became a brand stuck on other builds from that point. This one is a nice-quality instrument that has all sorts of build hallmarks I associate with Lange (Paramount, Orpheum) products of the 1920s.

Nice features of this instrument include an absurd amount of inlay in the headstock and fretboard, binding all over, a Bacophone-style "donut" tonering, multi-ply maple rim with flamed veneer, and quality hardware throughout. It's had some alterations over time but is mostly original. Said alterations include an old repair of the fretboard extension, newer Remo Renaissance head, replacement tailpiece, and an overspray coat of finish on the neck and rim.

There were some issues to deal with, but after my own work on it, it plays perfectly and has a bright, clean, loud, chipper sound. The donut-style tonering helps a lot to keep the voice clean and without the muddiness of too-much overtone saturation.

Work included: a board plane and refret with mandolin-sized frets, cleaning, a new compensated bridge install, new bone nut, bolt-reinforcement of the neck/pot joint, and a good setup. I'm using 32w-9 GHS A240 "bowlback" gauges, which are perfect for banjo-mandolin. The neck is straight (though the fretboard extension does dip down over the head, unfortunately) and it plays with bang-on 1/16" action at the 12th fret.

Scale length: 13 3/4"
Nut width: 1 3/16"
String spacing at nut: 1"
String spacing at bridge: 1 3/8"

Head diameter: 10 1/16" Remo Renaissance head

Side depth: 3"

Rim wood: maple, flamed veneer
Neck wood: maple, multi-piece
Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck shape: flat board with medium C/V rear shape

Bridge: maple/ebony 5/8" new

Nut: bone

Tonering: Bacophone-style "donut" shape

Condition notes: replacement nut, replacement bridge, replacement head, replacement tailpiece, finish overspray throughout (but still looks authentic).

It comes with: its original hard case in decent shape.

Please excuse the dust on the fretboard in the photos! I must've forgotten to clean it off after adjusting the nut.

If you look closely at the neck/rim joint, you can see the normal screw-tightened neck brace and also that behind it is a screw. The latter bit is something I added. I find that banjo-mandolin tension means the neck joint is never quite stable with just a tensioning neck brace (as those tend to loosen-up and cause action changes) and they really need a screw/bolt sunk in as well. This is the case on this guy, so I added one.