1920s Iucci Special Resonator Tenor Banjo

I have seen Iucci banjos now and then, but this was the first one in the shop for work. I have handled one of the maker's DeWick-style mandolins, however, at some point in the past. It's a beautiful banjo and, while fairly fancy, it's not over the top. The green highlights in the inlay striping and the green-painted resonator interior are very eye-catching against the maple of the neck and resonator.

It has a curious, all-metal rim construction (thin walls, too) and the neck simply bolts onto the rim with no dowel or extra support through the middle. I was worried about the functionality of this design but, to be perfectly honest, it doesn't need the extra support -- it's bang-on stable and does not budge at all when tuning-up and letting it settle-in.

Tim did the work on this which was light -- it got a mild level/dress of the frets and some setup work and a few replacement nuts for the resonator mounting threads, but that was pretty-much it save his and my finagling with the (non-orignal?) pickguard mounting experience.

One last interesting note is that it has "fine tuners" built into the tailpiece, just like modern violins. Someone replaced the original friction pegs at the headstock with geared units so the feature is relatively redundant, but I imagine back in the '20s it was a lifesaver!