1920s Epiphone Archtop Tenor Banjo

Overview: This Epiphone is of a style I'm unfamiliar with, but it's up the food chain for the brand judging by the heavy-duty hardware and likely made around 1922-1925 or so, judging by its build style. Shortly after that era, most professional banjos went to resonator designs with longer scale lengths. This one has a heavy-duty, archtop tonering that's a little reminiscent of old Gibson archtop rings but still has an openback design and a short, 21" scale length. This sort-of build is much preferred by "American Celtic" players and so I've set it up with the strings and GDAE tuning suited to that use. It's a pretty banjo, with "just the right amount" of wear and tear and nice, diamond-shaped pearl inlay in the fretboard. Soundwise, it's decently loud and punchy with great clarity and snap.

Repairs included: Molly gave it a level/dress of the frets and I cleaned it up, reglued a heel separation, modified the neck/rim mounting hardware situation, and put it all back together and set it up. It's playing spot-on and ready to go. 

• Weight: 7 lbs 0 oz
• Scale length: 21"
• Nut width: 1 1/8"
• Neck shape: medium C
• Board radius: flat
• Depth at first fret: 55/64"
• Depth at seventh fret: 29/32"
• Head diameter: 10 7/8"
• Resonator diameter: 2 3/4"
• Depth overall at rim: 3 3/4"
• Rim wood: ply maple
• Tonering: archtop/heavy-duty
• Bridge: maple/ebony
• Fretboard: ebony
• Neck wood: maple
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w, 30w, 22w, 13 for GDAE tuning
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: narrow/low

Condition notes: The tuners, head, and bridge are later replacements (though the tuners are nice, geared ones). I had to modify the dowel and neck-mounting system a bit as the original setup had 2 lag bolts fit on-center in the heel with the metal dowel being the tightener for one and a nut being the tightener for the other. That was causing the neck to split at the heel and I couldn't reuse that design. I changed it to a three-bolt attachment setup with the dowel attached to the end of the old lag and pinned through the rim's cap. This is secure and stable and also allows the dowel to do its job of helping the rim to stay stiff against tension. Other than all that, the instrument is original. It shows mild-medium usewear/playwear throughout but looks good.

It comes with: It has an old hard case.

Consignor tag: CLLR