old instruments

[Rudi]

Ive been moving this week and have unearthed two ancient instruments from wayyy back. Niether are in a playable condition at the moment. They are:-

A 5 string banjo (no bridge)

A 12 (yes 12) string mandolin (no bridge). This was in my parents house when I was still a sprog.

I am unsure of what to do with them. I am pushed for time at the moment, and ideas too. Any ideas?

[mooneyes]

i would suggest micing them up, sending them through reverbs, delays, ring modulators, and distorting their sound anyway you can... then, play them in a way that dosen't seem quite right. Perhaps use an e-bow? Or a bow? Then, add it as a background texture for a gruesome and dark piano lullaby, while reciting dark poetry overtop. You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you sprog!

[Rudi]

This is the best reply I got!  

[Steve]

Could you use them as planters...? Maybe put in a few tomatoes...

[Rudi]

There is no makers name on the mandolin. It has a lot of detailed decorative inlay.

The banjo has a makers name (cant recall at the mo) and was made in Chicago

[Guest olggu]

There is no makers name on the mandolin. It has a lot of detailed decorative inlay.

The banjo has a makers name (cant recall at the mo) and was made in Chicago

Fix them, play them, drive your neighbors crazy with them...By the way, did you guys know that Steve Martin (comic) is really great banjo player?  

[Rudi]

No. I liked his guitar playing in `All of ME' though.

Why is it good banjo players end up as Comedians or guitarists?

[Steve]

No. I liked his guitar playing in `All of ME' though.

Why is it good banjo players end up as Comedians or guitarists?

Stigma...

[hariossa]

Ive been moving this week and have unearthed two ancient instruments from wayyy back. Niether are in a playable condition at the moment. They are:-

A 5 string banjo (no bridge)

A 12 (yes 12) string mandolin (no bridge). This was in my parents house when I was still a sprog.

I am unsure of what to do with them. I am pushed for time at the moment, and ideas too. Any ideas?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

so, what did you do with them?

[Rudi]

Nothing. They are still on top of the wardrobe.

[roxhythe]

Find a competent luthier (guitar repairperson) to position the bridges. There's a Leonardo principle at work there I can't explain--but it's important where the bridge goes. The mandolin bridge might have to be hand-carved--the fellow I know who does this uses a vice and a Dremel. The luthier person may recommend tightening or even replacing the head on the banjo--odds are it's authentic animal skin, instead of the plastic they use these days,and it does wear out.

In my opinion, the banjo being really old may not make it special. Banjos are banjos. I have told our banjo player, who has a fixation on keeping the thing in tune, that it doesn't matter--how could one tell?

It may be possible to determine the provenance of the mandolin. There was a period--form the 1880s (I think) to somewhere in the 1920s--when there was a lot of experimentation with instrument design: crafting guitar necks ionto mandolin bodies,m and so forth. Real "island of Dr. Moreau" stuff. Aforementioned music store owner has a "bandolin"--a banjo with mandolin neck, and 8 strings--which I believe is from the 1890s. It has the fancy inlays, too.

Most music stores that deal in used instruments will have catalogs--big ones--with all that stuff in it. The store owner needs to know what oddities like this are worth, so he (or she) can buy 'em low and sell 'em high.

With 12 strings, I'd bet your mandolin was mean to be tuned like a guitar--but you'd probably have to use an open tuning: standard guitar chords would be almost impossible to make on a mandolin, unless you had fingers the size of a little kid's. (Of course, the thing may have been designed for a little kid.)

This help? Lots ofluck.

joe