Grandpa's Banjo

Years ago when Grandpa Tacke passed away Mom passed along his banjo to me.  It was dirty and the pegs didn't stay in tune all that well and it needed a new bridge.  I got a new bridge for it, but it was too tall.  The shop owner couldn't tell me much about it and so for the last few years it has mostly just been decor.  I finally decided that I was going to see about getting it in playing condition.  A friend recommended a shop to take it to, but I first spent some time online researching what I had.

I was able to find that it is a Langstile Banjo Ukulele.  I even found one for sale. There is no serial number or any other markings aside from a badge on the headstock.  Grandpa's was likely made in the 30s, as Mom guesses the picture of him playing it is from 1937, + or - a year based on the age of his nephew (thanks, Mom) sitting on the ground.

What confused me, was that Grandpa didn't have it strung so that it would take the tuning of a ukulele.  Standard ukulele tuning is G-C-E-A.  This interval spacing is the same as the 4 high strings on a guitar, but transposed up a 4th as a guitar is (E-A-)D-G-B-E.  The nice thing about this is that I already know guitar chords, so it would just be a matter or transposing them.  However, since that's not how the banjo was strung I was unclear as to how to actually tune it, so off to the shop I went.

At the shop I got a lower bridge and some new strings that were the same gauge as the ones on it.  It turns out that the string gauges were a very close match to those for a tenor banjo.  A tenor banjo has a longer scale, about 22" vs the 16.5" scale of a banjo uke.  A tenor banjo is tuned like a viola, to open 5ths.  This is just like a violin and mandolin, except lowered a 5th.  I tune my mandolin G-D-A-E.  Tenor banjo/viola/mandola tuning is C-G-D-A.  The nice thing about this tuning is that I sort of know how to play mandolin chords, so it's just a matter of transposing them.

I took apart and cleaned the tuners, tensioned the head, and adjusted the bridge. I also added some felt to the metal rim of the resonator, as there was some cosmetic damage on the neck from where the rim would knock into it. I've been making small adjustments and playing it over the last couple of days and it's working pretty well now.  I may pick up some uke strings for it as well, just to mess around, but I kind of like the wider range I get with tenor banjo tuning.  It spans 3 half steps shy of 2 octaves (a 13th interval), whereas uke tuning spans just 2 half steps more than an octave (a 9th interval).

So here's the newest instrument added to my collection

1930s Langstile banjo ukulele

Back of the resonator plate

Headstock

Headstock detail of the badge

So what does it sound like?  I'm no expert banjo player, and this was my first and only take using the video mode and built in mic of my now old digital camera.  It isn't mistake free and the camera mic isn't all that great, but here's a run-through of Ain't She Sweet.