Conference napalm::guitar

    For banjo and mandolin, the usual recommendation for eastern MA is
    the Music Emporium on Mass. Ave. in Lexington.
    
    4-string banjos are generally strummers (I picture a line of
    Shriners in a parade playing them; they were also common in
    vaudeville times), fwiw. You wouldn't be able to use it with
    bluegrass or old-timey frailing. SS Stewart is a good banjo brand.
    I've seen Washburn guitars, but I'm not familiar with their mandos.

re: .1

>    4-string banjos are generally strummers (I picture a line of
>    Shriners in a parade playing them; they were also common in
>    vaudeville times), fwiw. You wouldn't be able to use it with
>    bluegrass or old-timey frailing. SS Stewart is a good banjo brand.

4-string banjos come in (mostly) two types:

	Plectrum banjos (I think there's another name for them, but 
	I can't remember), which are the size of a modern five-string
	bluegrass banjo but without the fifth stirng.

	Tenor banjos, which are smaller than the plectrum banjos.

Tenor banjos are generally tuned in fifths like a mandolin (but starting
on a different note I think), while plectrum banjos are usually (but not
always) tuned like the top four strings of a guitar.

-Hal

    Thanks guys.  
    
    I'll end up trying the Music Emporium.  I now think 
    that these instruments are a century old.  Inside the mandolin it says
    "the new Washburn 1897 model".
    
    I'm afraid to breathe on them now.  But, both do seem to be in playable
    shape especially the mandolin which was encased.
    
    Thanks again,
    Don

    Those instruments are worthless, but since I'm a nice guy, I'll
    offer you $25 apiece for them ;^)
    
    The Washburn mando sounds like the better of the two instruments
    and would be a lot more sellable than a plectrum banjo. No one
    seems to want banjos anymore except for 5-string models.
    
    I seem to recall that SS Stewart was one of the many names that
    Harmony or Kay sold their instruments under through a distributor.
    I could be wrong, but I have seen a few SS Stewart archtops and
    they were pretty typical of Kay construction. Kay and Harmony date
    way back to the early 20th century and remained in business until
    the late 60's/early 70's. I believe there is a write-up on SS
    Stewart guitarts in Tom Wheeler's book. I'll check over the weekend
    and get back to you.
    
    
    
    	Mark

    AltaVista to the rescue, as usual. "ss stewart" +banjo turn up a
    number of links, including
    
    http://www1.primenet.com/locksley/banjomfg.htm
    
    on which it's said  
    
    >The banjos of S.S. Stewart are considered to be some of the finest
    >of the "classical" style banjos. Most were made for cat-gut strings,
    >and DO NOT take steel strings well at all, as they tend to warp the
    >necks. A slight twisting of the neck on an SS Stewart is pretty
    >common, and should not be allowed to detract from the value, unless
    >it is so serious as to hurt the instrument's playability. La Bella
    >makes a set of nylon banjo strings that work quite well on Stewarts.
    
    Mandolin Bros' web page at http://www.mandoweb.com/5stob_12.htm
    lists an SS Stewart open back 5-string old-timey banjo for $716.
    Based on the serial numbers on the above page, this one dates to
    1894, so SS Stewarts are likely to be pretty old.

    I take back everything I said. I'll give you $50/apiece for em!
    
    Mark

    You guys wouldn't want to leave him without, would you? Instead of
    money, I offer a trade: my old no-name-but-probably-made-in-the-Martin-
    factory tiple. All it needs is to have a bridge made for it, the
    neck removed and reattached (straight this time), and strings. A
    weekend hobby project?

    What style of instrument is the mandolin?  Is it a bowl back, is it an
    archtop (like Gibson A or F style), or what?
    
    Re: Banjo.  SS Stewart, as earlier indicated, was a name under which
    economy instruments were sold during the depression.  
    
    Classical banjo!  Isn't that a contradiction in terms?  ;^)  Actually
    I remember reading somewhere about a short-lived period of interest in
    classical banjo music in the US (in the late 1800's, I believe).  But
    then mandolin orchestras caught on...  BTW, on "Live Art" Bela Fleck
    plays a (very passable) rendition of a Bach piece that eventually
    mutates into "The Ballad of Jed Clampett (sp?)."  Maybe he'd be
    interested in the banjo.
    
    I think you guys should give me the banjo and the tiple too.  I've been
    dying to write some classical banjo & tiple duets...
    
    
    Jim 

    The mandolin in a bowl back.  It really doesn't look (to me anyway)
    like it'd be more than 30-30 years old.  At first I had doubts about
    the label (maybe some kind of re-issue).  
    
    I'll post a note when I bring them to Music Emporium and see about some 
    strings.  We'll see what they say.
    
    Get this too, the same guy that found these just came across some great
    40 year old trumpet.  He's taking lessons on that now.   I guess it
    does pay to get up early and hit the garage sales.
    
    Thanks everyone for all the info.
    
    Don

    Call me crazy, but I don't think I could get excited about a trumpet
    no matter how cheap or how old!
    
    Bowl-back mandolins are (unfortunately) very low on the Mando food
    chain. I doubt *any* bowl-back is worth more than $100. They are
    very awkward to play. I wasn't aware that Washburn made any of these.
    Are you sure the mando you're looking at is a bowl back? Bowl backs
    have very deep rounded backs. Is it possible you have a mando with
    an *arched back* and are mistaking it for a bowl-back?
    
    Mark
    
    
    

    Mark,
    
    It's got to be a bowl back. I'd never seen anything like it before and 
    wasn't even sure if it was a mandolin or not.  It does look like it'd
    be awkward to play.
    
    Regarding my friend and his new found trumpet...this guy does the
    kareoke circuit and always walks away with the prize.  He does Louis 
    Armstrong so good that it's incredible.  When he does that wonderful
    world song strangers buy him drinks as long as he stays.  If this guy 
    starts to play trumpet like Satch he'll end up in Hollywood.    8^)
    
    Don

    I'm sure Washburn made/sold bowlback mandolins in the late 1800s and
    early 1900s.  As Mark mentioned, though, demand for bowlback
    instruments is pretty minimal.  Neither bluegrass nor Celtic players
    want them.  What little amount of classical mandolin literature that
    exists was written for bowlback instrumnents, but there aren't many
    classical mandolin players out there...  Also, they seemed to have been
    made in relatively large numbers, so there are alot of them out there.
    
    
    Jim

    The only reasonable way to play a bowlback mandolin is to have
    several ribs removed.