1974 Caroprese 5-String Piccolo Banjola

My buddy Banjo Dave traded this to me for some work I'd done on his crazy old Teisco electric banjitar gizmo.

It's marked "R. Caroprese" on the headstock and at the soundhole, hailing from Elmhurst, New York. This fella must have been involved in the NY folk scene, for sure, and this creation of his is an absolute oddity.

It's a piccolo 5-string banjo, basically, but with a wood body in "banjola" fashion. It has a short, 16" scale that can be tuned a full octave above normal 5-string banjo and thus gives it a door-harp, autoharp treble-strings kind-of vibe. Because the body is tiny (spruce top over mahogany body/neck/sides) it doesn't have a lot of volume but it projects surprisingly-well probably because of that pitch.

The cool factor is the big draw for this one. It has a ginormous neck, heavy-duty fretboard, and Mr. Caroprese was wild-enough to have installed a ding-dong truss rod in said ginormous neck. What? He went all-out, for sure.

The funky guitar tuners at the headstock were cool enough that I fit a modern Gotoh geared 5th peg to go along with them to replace the terrible friction peg that was originally there.

It plays spot-on (action-wise) quick after work, though the neck size keeps me from calling it "fast and easy." The frets are in good order after a level/dress, I fit a giant truss rod cavity cover, and reconstructed the zero fret/nut area during work. I (thankfully) had a funky old bridge that was suitable for modifying for use with this.

Repairs included: fret level dress, new 5th peg, new bridge, zero fret/nut area repair, new truss rod cover, cleaning, setup, etc.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany (all one piece)

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: ebony/maple

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast)
String gauges: 9s

Neck shape: huge C

Board radius: flat

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-modern

Scale length: 16"

Nut width: 1 9/16"

Body width: 4"

Body depth: 3"

Weight: 1 lb 11 oz

Condition notes: oh my -- all-original save new/parts-bin bridge, new 5th peg, and truss rod cover and "fret" nut. There's a dryness hairline crack in the side of the neck that runs through the 5th peg position but it was repaired ages ago and is solid and good to go, no worries. There's tons of scratches, small nicks, small dings, and general wear and tear to the finish -- though it all makes it look better to me. I added side dots.