No-Name 5-string

 

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Village of Baoma, Sierra Leone

 

No serial #, no maker's marks.

Scale length 26 1/2 in.

Head dia. = 10 5/8 in.

30 hooks

Rolled-over tone ring.

This was my first open-back 5-string banjo.  I bought it around 1974 from Roland Coover in Chester County, PA.  I recently bought a banjo from his son, Roland Jr., and learned that Roland Sr. passed away in 2000.

Thanks, Roland.... I got a lot of pleasure out of this banjo.  This banjo made music for innumerable dances, shows, and bar gigs throughout the Northeast from 1974 through 1990, including a memorable square dance at a nudist colony near Pittsburgh. 

I learned about skin heads from this banjo.... I recall sitting in my bedroom one late fall day and listening to the head burst.... I had tightened it  during the summer to get some volume out of it, and the dry weather made it split.

This banjo makes an appearance on the Rustical Quality String Band LP (yes, pre-CD).