c.1890s/1920s Buckbee Player's 5-String Banjo

The bulk of this banjo is a c.1880s or 1890s Buckbee-made good quality 5-stringer. I've done this one up for a friend of mine and per his request gave it some more boom and sustain by including a tonering from a c.1920s tenor banjo I had stashed for parts (and in January, you'll get a glimpse of what I'm doing with its neck... electric tenor guitar...). I went a step further and included the tenor's more efficient (and less-likely-to-split-a-heel) neck brace and also some nice old Grover Champion pegs from the 20s, too.

The result? A warm, sweet sounding, big sounding, 1920s-sounding 5-string frankenbanjo with the great looks of a more naturalistic 1890s banjo -- and the excellent, super-fast feel of one, too. I went ahead with steel strings on it (and included one of my parts bin antique Elite tailpieces) as the lovely walnut neck is plenty strong for the tension.

Typical Buckbee headstock with ebony veneer and c.1920s Grover Champion pegs.

Thin ebony board with MOP dots.

"Boat" style heel... and your first glimpse of the super-cool rim!


Original skin head. Note the "arched" effect of the slightly-inline tonering.

Tailpiece area and bridge... the bridge is a parts-bin Grover that I'm going to cut and shave quite a bit to reduce as much weight as possible.

Check out that rim! I love it. It's spunover on the bottom with this alligator-skin nickel-silver played brass. Gives it an almost botanical look.

Attractive neck is v-shape and thicker than the usual gut-strung Buckbee, but still very fast.

Love that rim! Also, the hooks are special on this in that they pass through the brackets into a faux nut at the bottom. The real nut is sandwiched in the bracket and turns with a side-style wrench. This feels great in the lap and of course looks really cool when you've got it in your hands.

...and all that plated-brass hardware is original and in great shape.


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Back.


Tuners. Bakelite buttons.


5th peg is new and could use a black button at some point.


I love these boat heels. They feel nicer than the newer guitar-style heels.


Rim.

Here's the neck brace I've adapted from the tenor parts banjo. Way safer than the screws that used to hold the heel tight. Note the holes where the screws would have been.

The rim's top had a wooden raised section on the outside with a groove on the inside. The new tonering sits on that groove and protrudes slightly above the old wooden "tonering" which gives an arched effect to the top of the head. Here you have the best of both worlds: that warm, sweet, and rich tone that this thin, spunover pot gives, and the big sustain and volume that the tonering off a thicker-potted tenor from the 1920s has.

And here's that parts-bin Elite tailpiece... totally elegant on this 'jo.