1890s Strebe (Buckbee) Openback 5-String Banjo

This is a customer's banjo that was in the shop for sprucing-up and it's an oddball. If it isn't two mated pieces (a neck and a different rim) that are both from the 1890s, then it's an "original mated" instrument because the neck and rim were not fit very well together.

It has Strebe branding but, as with many old 1880s/1890s banjos, this one appears to be Buckbee-made judging by the neck design. It has a warm, sweet, mellow sound and a comfortable, substantial neck.

There was a bit of work to do and Tim did most of it (with Max doing a level/dress of the frets). The rim was completely out of round when it arrived and I helped him get the FiberSkyn head on it with the aid of a lot of bar clamps. It did the trick! Under tension, it's been holding-pat and mostly round. Next we had to address a huge gap at the end of the fretboard and we decided to do that by installing two wrench-adjustable bolts that can be used as neck-angle-adjusters. This is a trick I borrowed from the way some Ludwig and Weymann banjos were built. It's goofy but since a shim-up would have been ginormous on this banjo in that location and the rim was so wonkily-fit, it made sense to make the joint easily-adjustable. The rest of the work was normal -- new geared pegs fit to replace cruddy old '60s friction pegs, a new bone nut, some replacement hooks, a new bridge, parts-bin tailpiece, and whatnot...