Banjo Repair: A Five-String With A Past

This one is from the 1920s. The frets were a bit of a mess, and there was a great big hole in the skin. It was brought in by a customer whose father played it professionally in a banjo group from 1926 until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

I replaced the skin with a goat skin vellum. This is a difficult procedure, which involves wetting the skin and trimming it to size.

Once I’d tidied the frets and set up the banjo, it really began to sing.

On collection, the owner brought along some photos of her father, the banjo’s original owner. She was also kind enough to allow me to scan them and include them in this blog. His name was George Rusby.

George is fifth from the left on the back row. I think these photos are great. It makes me want to throw on some spats and dance the Charleston (or at least curl up with a good P.G. Wodehouse novel).