1930s Windsor (British-made) Resonator Banjo-Mandolin

Yessir, it's got that "clop-clop" horse-hoof sound in spades. That's what I call the "good" banjo-mandolin sound. It makes you want to play lead off of crosspicked drones. Fun! The "bad" banjo-mandolin sound is when the things are so overbearing with overtones and odd, out-of-tune sustain that you want to pitch the instrument in the river.

A local customer dropped this off ages ago and I stowed it as a "this needs some serious work" project in the back of my mind for some reason, so I forgot about it in the long-term pile for way too long. Thankfully, he was coming-down with a buddy for some light work on some other instruments so I dusted it off and said, "oh, I'm an idiot."

It only needed the usual stuff: a level/dress of the frets, side dots, better neck joint reinforcement, a compensated bridge, and setup -- about an hour or two's work at most. Now that it's done, I'm really happy with this instrument. It both looks killer and has a nice tone, too.

The construction is interesting as well. It has a "zither-banjo-style" rim design like most British banjos (and French, and German ones) of the era, but it also has a "bloomed-out" resonator behind the main sidewalls of the rim. It's thus a full-on resonator banjo but it clocks-in at less weight and heft than a same-period American instrument and it has a little bit more of a woody tone, too. It's interesting.

It has a 13 1/2" scale length and a wider/thicker neck profile, but other than that I can't remember the specs -- save that the head was perhaps about 8 1/4" across...? That's why I didn't replace it with synthetic. One can get 8" Remo heads and 10" Remo heads but in-between that is a custom $80+ order that will (in these COVID days) take eons to fulfill.

Note that there's a little muting foam under the tailpiece to damp overtones.