1920s Van Eps Recording Tenor Banjo

Fred Van Eps was one of the most well-known banjo players of the 1910s and 1920s and he went into business building his own-brand "Recording" banjos in the '20s. They feature a unique design with a "dogbowl" metal tonering that sits in the center of the rim (held in place with little legs) and a head with a hole cut in its center (like a guitar or mandolin top). The rim is setup "archtop style" so the "lip" of the dogbowl tonering sits inboard from the rim's outer edge a bit.

The idea is to create a "sound chamber" which directs the sound forward from the soundhole in the head. This would then enable easier "recording" of the instrument via the primitive mics in use at the time as back in the day it was quite important to push all of your sound directly towards a microphone when recording as usually there was only one mic capturing a whole band.

Does it work? Well, yes and no. Archtop tonerings of this sort are mildly inefficient due to their decreased "actual working diameter" in the head but they do afford a little extra tension to be given to the head due to the extra "slack" in the skin at the edges. So, really, the instrument behaves as if the rim is a little smaller. This "forward" sound also does not leak out the back of the rim very much, so the extra benefit of the "secondary resonating chamber" in the rear of an instrument like this is removed and doesn't give extra "room volume."

However, for the job it's supposed to do -- a good chop of volume straight out from the soundhole -- it does work nicely. It has a clean, focused tone that chops forward more like a typical, some-years-later, resonator banjo than like contemporary instruments built by other makers.

Online and traditional lore claims these instruments were made by the Van Eps/Burr factory in Plainfield, NY and then distributed by Lyon & Healy in Chicago, but I find it incredibly unlikely that Van Eps oversaw production of these himself. Considering that much of the hardware (especially the hook/nuts and neck cut) and general build style of this instrument has strong Lange references (it reminds me a lot of same-period Lange Triple X products), I rather suspect that Lange might have been contracted-out to build these for the company. I may be completely wrong, however, and just some parts may have been sourced from Lange.

In any case, it's a highly-thought-out, robust, and intriguing instrument and it's built to a high spec for its time. Post-repairs it's playing spot-on and ready to go, too.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, cleaning, and setup.

Weight: 6 lbs 1 oz

Scale length: 21"

Nut width: 1 1/4"

Neck shape: medium soft V

Board radius: flat

Head diameter: 12"

Depth overall at rim: 2 1/2"

Rim wood: ply maple

Tonering: dogbowl

Bridge: Non-Tip Grover

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: highly-figured maple

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 32w, 20w, 13, 9 for CGDA tuning

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: low/small

Condition notes: it appears to be all-original with perhaps the exception of the bridge and, of course, the rubber coating on the armrest. One of the shoes also has a replaced hex nut on the interior of the rim but it's definitely older. The finish has mild wear and tear throughout and the hardware is tarnished as you'd expect, but overall the looks is grand and clean for its age. This banjo has 1:1 friction pegs at the headstock and so if you're planning to use this for gigs, it might be useful to swap them out for some sort of geared pegs. The foam under the strings at the head's top is a slight "overring" dampener to mute the string-ends.

It comes with: its (presumably) original hard case.