an old Irish banjo

pirate luthier adventures, interlude:

My freegle call for broken instruments (which I've now paused for the time being while catching up with some more challenging repairs that have piled up) was specifically targeting bowed string instruments of the violin family, but it has also brought in some plucked instruments.

One is this Irish five-string banjo, which had been in the same family for four generations since a band master by the name of Sullivan brought it from Cork to Carnarvon (now Caernarfon, North Wales) in the late 19th century. I set it up with a new bridge and a set of strings (the bronze-wound 4th string is original, but I bought the full set so this can be exchanged if required). Everything works fine and it sounds just like a banjo as far as I can tell.

Strangely, I don't feel much of an urge to play it, so if somebody around Oxford would like to play it I'll be happy to pass it on for a refund of the costs incurred for strings and bridge. It comes with the original historic hard case, which just about holds together still but doesn't have its lock any more, so to use it for carrying the instrument one would at the very least have to add some sort of fastening mechanism to it.

Have some photos taken after I received it:

and here is my setup: