1930 Vega Style R Whyte Laydie Resonator Tenor Banjo

The astounding thing about this banjo isn't that it's a high-class, jazz-era, chord-slaying, ear-overloading monster of a tenor banjo -- which it is -- but that it's got what appears to be a WWII "nose art" paintjob on the rear of the resonator. It depicts a comical bird (which looks nothing like a bird of paradise) carrying a bomb and the phrase, "Even the Bird of Paradise stalls at 60 knots." That's about 70 mph.

This is rather cryptic but the story about the instrument told to the owner when he bought it is that it related to a WWII bomber. My family is full of aviation ties and so this was right up my alley.

A little searching online yields a B-24 Liberator called "The Bird of Paradise" operating in the Pacific which was downed over Iwo Jima. I think this is the likely suspect of our story but we may honestly never know. Bonnie and I spent a good hour going through history and obits for the various crew members that were available online but none of them mentioned any music-making, though the pilot of the "Bird" later went-on to a pretty successful Air Force career. I've attached photos of the airplane's incident report, crew list, and a photo of it flying later-on in the post.

Anyhow, about the banjo? It's of course quite nice! It's a Vega Whyte Laydie from the prime of the jazz age! It's loud, punchy, chirpy, and cuts and stings like a swarm of bees while still being polite, in its way, to the high-end of your hearing.

The owner had it sent to Deering to "rebuild" some time back and it got a fancy tailpiece, overspray job throughout on the finish, fancier resonator attachment system, a refret, and quality setup work done. It arrived back to him a rugged, functional, perfectly-performing instrument and my only work was to nudge the setup a teensy hair and take photos and a video.

Repairs included: a quick setup.

Weight: 8 lbs 13 oz

Scale length: 23"

Nut width: 1 3/16"

Neck shape: medium-deeper soft V

Board radius: flat

Head diameter: 11”

Resonator diameter: 13 1/2”

Depth overall at rim: 3"

Rim wood: ply maple

Tonering: Whyte Laydie

Bridge: maple/ebony w/individual saddles

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: 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: medium-modern

Condition notes: the owner sent this to Deering to be completely done-over and made into a practical instrument and while much of it is original, some improvements have been made and the whole instrument had its finish oversprayed (except for the inside of the rim and resonator). Proper resonator thumbscrew-bolt adapters were added (vs the "middle bolt" style which tweaks the dowel when cranked-down), an Oettinger-style tailpiece was added, and it was refretted at the time as well. All of this meant that when it arrived here, all I had to do was give it a setup and it was playing spot-on. The frets are new and it plays the business.

It comes with: a Deering-branded hard case.