You know what, I might have just proven my friend right. It looks like a close sibling of this Slingerland (which he had said and I simply forgot to look up!). So circa 1920s, it seems?

reverb.com/item/2162269-slinge...nor-banjo

I think you're right on all counts.

I use the std. D'adderio Irish Tenor sets...and tune ADAE. 99% of Irish tunes never use the low G.

As soon as it gets warm outside, I'll be on the porch with my tenor. Today's my birthday, so jigs, reels, slides and shenanigans.

Tonk Bros was a music distributor in the Midwest that sold banjos among other things. This banjo was made by Slingerland. They were one of several makers who made instruments for Tonk Bros. Your estimate of it's age is pretty good.
Slingerland banjos were remarkably good, considering that they were made as beginner to mid-level instruments. Many of them are still in good shape for banjos that are a hundred years old.

Who is "Saint Patty"? Is it something to do with burgers?

quote:

---

Originally posted by CrazyCatLazy

Who is "Saint Patty"? Is it something to do with burgers?

---

Hah! Autocorrect for the win!

Thanks for the confirmations. It's been fun playing some Irish tunes on the new banjo today. 

that is a ladies banjo made for the bands like the Ingenues ladies banjo band:

youtube.com/watch?v=krNwEMCaf88

Almost no one plays a short scale in Ireland. Only American musical tourists.

Enjoy!

Anyone have some good Irish banjo songs to learn?

quote:

---

Originally posted by BDCA

that is a ladies banjo made for the bands like the Ingenues ladies banjo band:

youtube.com/watch?v=krNwEMCaf88

Almost no one plays a short scale in Ireland. Only American musical tourists.

Enjoy!

---

Barney McKenna (RIP) and Angelina Carberry might beg to differ...

Barney played a 19 fret Clifford Essex Paragon, the same banjo I play. I know because I knew Barney in the early 70s. He seems to have switched to a shorter scale due to failing health. As for Angelina , she is the single exception but she plays a top of the line custom Oakwood that were made in the UK.

So you have proved my point exactly!
Thanks.

My understanding is that those banjo orchestras were not only women (though women's groups were popular). Now I'm thinking of that "Banjo" song from Meet Me in Saint Louis. And yep, it's stuck in my head.

I recently came across a short scale five string with a very large pot. Those were closer to what I had expected for the "women's groups" and college ensembles of the turn of the last century.

I've just built a tenor... all I could find was a 17 fret neck for now. So I've been looking for an old gibson 19 fret neck (cut for one piece flange) with no luck so far. With all the bluegrass conversions that have been done, you'd think there'd be tons floating around.

But strangely, I have found 16, 17, 18, 19, and 22 fret necks out there from gibson with various flange cuts. Then there are vega banjos I see that have basically 17 fret necks but additional frets that extend over the head out to 19 or 20.

So it seems there certainly wasn't much of a standard in the US tenor production back during the banjo peak era. Maybe things were much more standardized in UK production.

Still I want to try a 19. My string calculator says like 50% more string tension on one of those tuned to ADAE. That may help even out left hand picking tricks that I like to do from my mandolin background (think Sam Bush Stringray type stuff). I find it hard with low string tension to get your left and right hand picking to sound the same.

jt80 I put the heavy octave mando strings on this tenor and it's got some decent tension. I'm a bit surprised that folks don't sell the necks after the conversions. I wonder if some of the neck builders just keep 'em. I know I've seen some photos with a wall full of old necks, but I don't remember where.

Top 3 strings don't have a problem with tension. The bottom string on a 17 fret usually needs a boost, definitely 40+. String sets are not really designed for such short necks, you should swap out the g for something heavier, even 44 or more.

Oh, that makes sense. The octave mandolin set is quite heavy throughout and it makes for a bit of a slow playing instrument. That said, it's got a nice heft to the sound and drives the old hide head really well. Do many folks use the lighter Irish set for all but the G?

I've run into similar things with other banjos, mostly because I'm picky about sound and feel. Perhaps it's time to start buying individual strings.

I use this calculator to play around:
chordgen.parmakis.co.uk/tensiontool.php#

You can do a custom with a 17 fret scale 19.75", and see how it works out. I also tune ADAE, and you can enter that in on the calculator as well. Click on the 19 fret tenor preset, then the top box will show the values, and you can then edit the string scale, notes, and gauges.

I've used a few things now, and I've settled on the deering GHS set now. It's 12-18w-28w-38w, and feels really good to me on both my archtop (40 hole, ren head, currently running at 88 tension and dropping) and 12" openback (the gold tone IT-17 I won in the giveaway for st. patty's day). That set is not perfectly balanced based on the calculator, but based on playing feel I wouldn't change it to make it so.

The gold tone set is 10-20w-30w-40w, and I don't like the feel on the archtop, but the wound strings are pretty good on the openback. HOWEVER, that 10 is way too light for that set (not just on the calculator, but in how it feels). If you plug things in on the calculator you'll see how out of place the 10 is in that set. 

There are other sets out there, but not many that have a wound high A string. American made banjo (I love their strings for RB) can make custom sets, but again, options are limited for a wound high A. I think I contacted them and the lightest wound they have is 20w, but you can't really select that on the configurator they have online.

I'm still tweaking around on the 12". It's very boomy and sounds great, but strings turn into ropes in a week, and I can't afford 52 sets a year. GT has done about everything they can to enhance the bass, and it's nice when you have new strings, but then you have to chase it as the strings age with thinner and thinner picks. So I'm doing a few things to extend that and brighten it up a bit. Brand new strings will be a bit too bright, but then it should settle in for 4 weeks of goodness. That's the plan at least. I'm going to go to a top frosted head, swap the no-knot for something I can get a better break angle with, maybe go up in head tension a hair, dotson bridge, the slightly lighter deering set of strings. All subtle things, but I'm hoping they'll add up and I'll get the pop back on older low A and D strings.

This is the fun thing about banjos. There's almost nothing you can't just tweak and tweak until you get exactly the sound and feel you're looking for. I'm a lot farther along in the process on the archtop I put together, but if I think back to how it sounded when I first strung it up vs now, it's amazing the ground that's been covered so far.

Thank you for this link, it's what I've been wishing I had but had not thought to try and search for (though who knows whether I would have found it anyhow).

I'm in and out of town right now, but I think I'll dig into some of these numbers and try a few more sets out. This banjo is at 20.875" and I ran the numbers for the sets you suggest against the ones that I have on there now (and what I would expect from the oft-recommended EJ63i set). That GHS one looks like it could be a good fit, but the low G will end up out of place since I don't tune up to ADAE. The tool suggests a 12/18w/38w/42w for 60lbs. Yeah, this'll be a fun rabbit hole.

I was about to say "is there a recommended tension," but I suppose I should just play with this thing based on my other stringed instruments to see what I like. Thanks for the new distraction from the work I should be doing!