Just for curiosity i found this on the EBay I think it doesn’t make sense: The instrument is not a little Wonder, it is a tubaphone without the bracket band, I think Vegavox didn’t have Bracket band? So it could be an open back Vox? No flange no resonator but the vox banjo is famous for the deep resonator... does it make sense? Or it’s a fake?
https://www.ebay.it/itm/117148164164?_skw=banjo+vegavox+little+wonder&itmmeta=01KT78KRJSEKW0CH0FSMPXF41D&hash=item1b46932044:g:1cwAAeSwPL5p4lrO&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA4GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xDDpu63d1VCaDrPHPqukbhOpw9dDDyuDKVs7EhBFqJbihabqFxBsPXBTM17tUI%2BSxESohj9PY0p0mMcXMGKcgA1arFtcK7RGqKYrjN8vRKjjRaDTmV1Shaz5IjSL3%2FhAUWb7eWbQSoCLr85N%2BgNcwGmxcb%2F9lhgOoBc3soQBbHTOkM17xiARerwNcGs%2BHgY%2FZP0rneNx%2FH9tywG1LBowDBNT2%2FcTawnMWnSPpsnFN4PEV7pSFqzWeM9CwAjGxayYITcfTyV5Ftb2wZcpddgjKE9%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8CJz-jRZw
Edited by - banjopaolo on 06/03/2026 10:41:53
Well the inlaid peghead says VegaVox, so the neck at least must be real (this looks much too old to be a repro neck).
The key attribute of a VegaVox is the top-tensioning system to tighten the head, which this banjo shows. By all experience it ought to have a deep resonator. Maybe that has gone missing over the decades?
I am completely stumped by Little Wonder stamped on the dowel, especially in such an unusual spot on top of other branding.
It's a puzzle. An odd duck!
If you could clean it and find any kind of a resonator you might have a darn good tenor banjo on your hands!
Thank you Dick, I always appreciate your posts here on the hangout!
I just find this eBay link today on the internet, I’m not going to buy this banjo…
I was just curius about it…
I love old Vega banjo, I have owned three (two simple little Wonder tenor and a tubaphone Tenor) and I regret to have sold them…
I have had the chance to play a couple of Vegavox (not so easy here in Europe to find such instruments) and I think that they were some of the best four string banjo ever made (I don’t know if Vega ever made Vegavox five string instruments) but as jazz banjo Vegavox are really special!
My instinct also tells me that it’s a good banjo. But I think it’s a bit rough for the asking price. The Vega sound is very nostalgic to me.
Looks like a marriage of Vegavox parts and a Little wonder pot and dowel.
I would say the rim started life as a Vox rim, as there's no ghost of a traditional end bolt that a traditional non-Vox configuration would have had.
The Little Wonder stamp may have just been a mistake at the factory. The patent stamp right on top of it suggests something along those lines. I have seen several other Vegas mis-stamped (and then "corrected") in similar ways.
Not a Little Wonder pot. As mentioned, it’s clearly a later Tubaphone, from after Vega dropped the bracket band.
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