Grandpa's banjo came to live with me yesterday...

[warfrat73]

Sort of bittersweet for a few reasons, but my grandfather's Gibson TB-11 came to live with me yesterday. Grandpa passed in 1993 and this has been with my parents since then.

A couple years after he passed, I had a new head put on it and a couple of other necessary repairs done to it as a Father's Day gift for my dad. He took a few passes at learning to play, but didn't stick with it (dad was a professional piano player and singer for many years, but I guess banjo just wasn't his thing).

It's mostly just lived in its case not being used for the better part of that 30 years. I'd pull it out when I visited once in a while and make some noise on it, but that's about it. For several years I asked about taking it home to use it, but my dad was resistant, so I let it go. Anyway, yesterday he asked if I still wanted to take it, and I said yes. This in the midst of some uncomfortable discussion about... well, he's 83 now, and in decent health, but on the odd occasions when both my sister and I are visiting at the same time, he's taken to telling us where everything is in case something should happen.

At some point in the last couple of years the tailpiece came apart. So it's not playable just at the minute.

What I'd like to do is get a good 5-string conversion neck and tailpiece and string it up that way (no plans on cutting down the rim to install a tone ring). But spending $1000 or so in a decent neck is a bit much at the moment. I'll do some looking around.

Not sure the exact year, but somewhere in the 1930s.

[raysachs]

Wow,

I’m not a banjo guy at all - wouldn’t know what to do with one. But between the sentimental value that must hold for you and the pure visual wonderfulness of that instrument, it should find a prominent place on one of your walls, or a nice stand. Get it fixed and play it if you like, but keep that one OUT to be seen and soaked in, at the very least. Very cool!

-Ray

[Steve DeRosa]

I'm with Ray : get the tailpiece repaired/replaced, pick up a new bridge, restring it, and play it - that one deserves to be seen. Although I don't know what style[s] of music you prefer, a tenor banjo strung in drop-G tenor uke tuning (GCEA low-to-high) can be an extremely versatile instrument - I've used mine for vaudeville/Dixieland, neo-trad folk, chanteys, as an alternative lead instrument in the mandolin/fiddle range (more cut and projection than either), even fingerstyle when my 5-string was out of commission (surprisingly effective in that role BTW) - and there's virtually no learning curve as the fingerings are the same as guitar chords on the first four strings...

[Pine Cone]

Interesting looking banjo.

You might try contacting Bob Smakula about a replacement tail piece. He has lots of vintage parts.
http://www.smakula.com/index.html

Carl Arcand in Quebec might be a good source for a conversion neck
https://www.secondlifebanjo.com/

[SpruceTop]

Warfster, a cool-looking banjo, play it for years to come in whatever configuration you decide on!

[Bob Womack]

Wow, fascinating! You could clean it up but then the DNA would be gone. It is both an interesting historical punctuation mark with the use mother-of-toilet-seat and a sentimental piece for you as well.

Bob

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

Anyway, yesterday he asked if I still wanted to take it, and I said yes. This in the midst of some uncomfortable discussion about... well, he's 83 now, and in decent health, but on the odd occasions when both my sister and I are visiting at the same time, he's taken to telling us where everything is in case something should happen.

Not to derail the thread, and that is a stunning keepsake BTW, however I want to highlight your statement above.

Your father is doing a smart and courageous thing by telling you this information now. Many of us intend to do this sort of thing 'someday', but somehow never get around to it.
My wife has worked with families trying to sort out a lifetime with NOTHING written down, and it can be heart-breaking. He is giving you a gift of reduced anguish and time for the future.

OK, back to your heirloom!

[warfrat73]

Thanks for all the thoughts.

I really know nothing about tenor banjo (other than it being used a lot in Dixieland and Irish music), though I've played around with 5-string a bit. But, I just learned today that Irish Tenor Banjo is strung like an Octave Mandolin (so GDAE an octave below mandolin).

I do play mandolin a bit, so I should be able to get around on that fairly well, and so my plan for the short term is to string it up like that and play it a bit, maybe try to make a few decent recordings of some fiddle tunes to share with my parents.

I should be able come up with some reasonable arrangements for tenor banjo, mando, guitar and bass that I can track reasonably well.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

Thanks for all the thoughts.

I really know nothing about tenor banjo (other than it being used a lot in Dixieland and Irish music), though I've played around with 5-string a bit. But, I just learned today that Irish Tenor Banjo is strung like an Octave Mandolin (so GDAE an octave below mandolin)...

I should be able come up with some reasonable arrangements for tenor banjo, mando, guitar and bass that I can track reasonably well...

If you're set on tuning in fifths and working with mandolin and guitar, you might want to consider staying with traditional CGDA tenor banjo tuning: IME Irish tuning tends to clash with the guitar's low end once you get down on the G and D strings (with not enough distinction of timbre to keep it from getting muddy), and the fact that traditional tenor tuning is a fifth below the mandolin allows for the same relationship as the violin/viola in a string quartet, as well as lending clarity if you're into harmonized double-lead lines...

There's also the alternative I suggested of drop-G tenor uke tuning, which not only provides you with a different-timbre solo instrument in approximately the same register as the mandolin but offers the convenience of virtually zero learning curve; here's an example with Chuck Romanoff of Schooner Fare (who turned me on to this tuning) on drop-G tenor banjo:

[warfrat73]

Thanks, Steve.

I'll probably give it a go with the traditional tuning then, didn't realize it was tuned like a mandola... but I probably should have figured that out.

Despite a couple of years of picking mandolin, these 5th tuned instruments are still a bit of a mystery to me.

Waiting on a tailpiece from StewMac, so not much happening in the meantime.

[warfrat73]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

There's also the alternative I suggested of drop-G tenor uke tuning

If I were to give this a shot, what's a good bet for strings... I'm assuming that there's not a "drop-G tenor uke" steel string set out there.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

...I'm assuming that there's not a "drop-G tenor uke" steel string set out there.

You're correct: Chuck Romanoff (one of the very few current exponents of this tuning, which in fact dates to the 1920's when uke players wanted to cash in on the jazz craze) has his set up with four plain strings of various gauges - he never told me which - and I'm using 10-13-18W-26W loop end on my built-like-a-tank Deering Boston tenor. For an older instrument like yours I'd suggest starting with 9-12-16-24W loop end (available in bulk from juststrings.com - a whole lot cheaper than buying one at a time from your local store BTW) and working up from there if your banjo will handle the extra tension...

[Rudy4]

If you get in a bind or can't find the appropriate loop end string it's not difficult to remove the brass "ball" end. I think I might have a Youtube demo of doing it, since I used to buy PB guitar strings in bulk to string my octave mando. The strings were inexpensive and easy to get. I just had to remove the brass ferrule.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

...I used to buy PB guitar strings in bulk to string my octave mando. The strings were inexpensive and easy to get. I just had to remove the brass ferrule.

No need - they already make them in loop-end configuration, in any gauge you're likely to need:

https://juststrings.com/bulk-loop-en...&sort=priceasc
https://juststrings.com/phosphor-bro...&sort=priceasc

[L50EF15]

As a tenor player, I must say this is a stunning instrument. I also play mandolin and taking up tenor banjo made both instruments click for me; coming from decades of guitar, the fifths tuning on both instruments took me a while to get fully comfortable with.

A chord book for one will generally work for the other (you’re transposing a fifth up or down), except that you can’t get the full bluegrass “chop” G chord from mandolin to banjo.

You have a wonderful heirloom instrument there. Play it with joy,