1920s/2023 Strand Electric Tenor Banjo Conversion

Overview: Ancel whipped this instrument up for a friend of his back in 2023. Since then, said friend moved way out west and dropped a bunch of instruments off (no room to take them all!) with us for resale -- this one included. I've made a few such tenor-to-electric conversions in the past and I suppose the idea took Ancel's fancy because he did a really cool version of it.

This started-off as a Lange-made "Stand" tenor banjo from the mid-'20s.  The first moves were to swap-around the shoes to the interior of the rim, fit binding on the top edge of the rim where there used to be a small hoop tonering, and then fit a top and back to it -- both masonite -- and fit the wiring harness, pickups, and bridge. The bridge itself is a parts-bin ABR-style with two saddles removed, so it can be adjusted to suit different strings. The pickups are a pair of Korean Alnico P90s with custom covers and the outside poles not exposed.

Ancel made a new riser for the bridge pickup since it came back, cleaned it up a bit, fit a new rear to it (since the original one had gone missing), and tweaked everything just a bit.

Repairs included: Aside from the mods, it's had a fresh level/dress of the frets, setup, and restring to favor GDAE (octave mandolin) tuning.

• Weight: 4 lbs 15 oz
• Scale length: 22 1/2"
• Nut width: 1 1/8"
• Neck shape: slim/medium V
• Board radius: flat
• Depth at first fret: 0.74"
• Depth at seventh fret: 0.79"
• Rim diameter: 10 7/8"
• Depth overall at rim: 2 5/8"
• Rim wood: maple
• Tonering: none
• Bridge: adjustable ABR-style
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: maple multi-ply
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 38w, 28w, 15, 11 for GDAE tuning
• Neck relief: hair of relief -- taken-out via fret level job
• Fret style: very low/small

Condition notes: It's been modified! -- so there's all that to take into account. Other than that, the whole instrument shows some minor wear and tear and aging to the finish commensurate with it being 100+ years old. The original friction pegs on the neck are long gone and swapped-over to older Grovers for ease-of-use. 

It comes with: Sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: OAK