Why I make Banjos

As a regular visitor to the 19th Century, I will confess that it a fascinating place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.  I am a creature of the present.  Still, there are elements of that past century that I do appreciate.

For me it is really about connections.  Understanding where we have been sheds light on the present and points the way forward.  When making banjos, I feel the connection of history.  When I make a musical instrument by hand, I am connecting with the roots of a rich heritage. 

The banjo is an inextricable part of folk music.  The roots of American folk music are legion, yet the synthesis of cultural disparities in this art form is typical of how the “melting pot” transforms disparate cultures into something uniquely American.  The banjo is both the voice of an ancient African hunter-gatherer and the voice of the urban American performer of the industrial age.  It is the voice of the slave and the voice of the master.   

With today’s revival of “roots” music the banjo is experiencing a rebirth.  Putting aside steel strings, amplifiers and electronic enhancements, people are discovering the simple pleasures of natural acoustic sound.  Across time and space, the fretless gourd banjo echoes the human experience singing a different song to each generation that is at once both unique and yet familiar.  As we pluck its strings we become part of an unending human chain. The gourd banjo sings to us at a visceral level connecting us to those who have gone before and creating a bridge to those who are yet to come.  

                                                                                  John Salicco
                                                                                  The Banjo Factory

The above image is a copy of The Banjo Lesson by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1893.

This is a sample of a reproduction fretless gourd banjo with a scroll style peg head and a carved "ogee" neck. The short string tuning peg is at 5th stop (fret) position on the neck.  Tuning pegs and nut are rosewood. The bridge and saddle are maple.  The skin on the head is deer rawhide tacked in place without glue using reproduction French upholstery tacks.  Strung with Nylagut strings (Gut is usually available on request for an additional charge).

A Short History of the Banjo

Gourd or fretless banjos have their beginnings in the mid to late 18^th Century.  Before that, there existed gourd and bladder instruments far into African antiquity.  The Akonting, Buchundu, Busunde, Koliko, Kokoli, Temba, Kaburu, Gurmi,Komo and Wase are all ancestral string instruments that survive in Africa to this day.  From the 16^th Century Caribbean sugar plantations to the cotton fields of antebellum America, these gourd instruments developed into what we now call the banjo. 

From the beginning, the common form consisted of a rawhide covered gourd, a simple fretless neck and a short drone string accompanied by one or more, longer melody strings.  Until the 1830’s, four strings made up the usual configuration, but in the late 30’s or early1840’s a fifth melody string was added by white performers to afford greater musical range to the instrument. 

What began as a simple folk instrument used to create a background rhythm for story telling and relaxation in the evenings after a backbreaking day of labor for the “masters”, now became an increasing precise and sophisticated musical instrument used to accompany professional performers.  The popularity of the American Minstrel Show then helped elevate the banjo into a stylish parlor instrument of Victorian white society.   

By the end of the Civil War, the banjo had become almost entirely an instrument of the white culture generally shunned by the blacks, largely because of its association with slavery and the demeaning themes of minstrel shows.  Shortly afterwards frets were added and the banjo for a time even did a stint in the orchestra pit.  The banjo never made a come back among the African Americans and to this day regrettably, what began as a black instrument is still predominantly an instrument of the white culture. 

Interesting Fact: 

When did the fifth string get added to the banjo?

Sweeney is often credited with adding the fifth string to the fretless banjo.  (It was the 4th bass string that was added.  The short drone or chanterelle has been with the banjo from its very beginning.)  Whether Sweeney was the first to add a fifth string or just the first maker to popularize it is open to debate, but after Sweeney introduced it on his banjos, the fifth string became a de facto standard.  From the late 1840’s onward virtually all commercially made fretless banjos were made with five strings.  I differentiate “commercially made”  from “home made” folk instruments because, when it comes to folk instruments, anything goes.

In the latter 19th Century and early 20th Century there were several adaptations made to the banjo’s form.  The fretless banjo became less and less common and frets became the new standard.  After the addition of frets and the addition of steel strings, the modern 4 string Tenor Banjo was another innovation.  The twentieth century also saw the hybridization of the banjo with other string instruments such as the ukulele and the guitar.

One of my favorite early 20th Century innovations was the Banjo Light and Heater.  Light sockets were clamped into the head with bulbs behind the skin.  The warmth of the bulbs kept the skin tight and had the bonus effect of making it glow in the dark!

The above "Banjo Light" ad is copied from "Frets" Magazine, October, 1925

The Banjo Factory provides quality acoustic folk instruments at a reasonable price. Ideal for period music performers, Civil War re-enactors, folk musicians - beginners or pros!