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Hunting
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5-string banjo, no makers mark but almost certainly made by Lyon & Healy.
A very plain-looking, nice-sounding banjo. No inlays whatsoever.
Friction tuners with faux amber buttons. The 5th string tuner was missing and I replaced it with a Stewart-MacDonald friction tuner with a bone-colored button, so the tuner buttons don't match.
Now with Martin-Vega med-gage steel strings & Yellowstone head. No tone ring, head rests on wood of pot.
Tailpiece is bone riveted to brass, my first successful bone prototype. It is reinforced with an internal brass rod so it will handle the stress of steel strings. Loosely copied from an old bone tailpiece that I got on a vintage Buckbee.
DIMENSIONS:
Head dia. = 11 in. 12 hooks.
Scale length approx. 24 7/8 in.
String span @ nut approx. 1 in
String span @ heel approx 1 9/16 in.
Bridge approx 1/2 in. tall
SETUP:
action @ octave approx. 3/16 in.
FLAWS:
Scuffing is typical for banjos of this vintage (my guess.... early 1900's). Pot metal is in good shape and has been polished
I added an approx. 1/8 in. shim to the end of the dowel, pot may be very slightly out-of-round.
Tuner buttons do not match. All except one of the J-hook nuts appear to be original, one is a very close match.
Friction tuners are less easy to use than geared tuners. If you're not accustomed to friction tuners, they may take a little getting used-to. Not really a flaw, but a caution for the first-time vintage banjo-buyer.
The Yellowstone stamp ios slightly off-center. The head is correctly installed, I just stamped it off-center. Doesn't affect the sound.
It came to me with a hole drilled in the peghead between tuners # 2 and #3 with a cord for hanging. I repaired the hole so that it is almost invisible from the front, moderately visible from behind.
ON THE PLUS SIDE:
Nice sound from an inexpensive, well set-up, vintage banjo.
SOUND CLIP
