1890's George Washburn 5 strings banjo
The original hardware is beautiful and with no missing parts except for the Grover friction tuners installed a long time ago in replacement of the wooden or bone pegs and for the Antique tailpiece that I installed to replace the original one that was broken. Every hardware part have been cleaned and polished. There is not much of the nickel plating left so the hardware will age rapidly to a nice patina.
11 inches diameter nickel plated brass double spunover rim with a hard maple rim. The Calfskin head is not new but in great shape.
The original black cherry neck has been resettled and re finished. The head plate and the fingerboard were unglued. I straightened the neck replace the maple and black wood lamination, re install the fingerboard, re crown the frets and polish the fingerboard. There are a few surface cracks on the ebony probably due to dryness so I applied 2 coats of mineral oil which was rapidly absorb by the wood. All the inlays are intacts and original. Scale is 26 1/4 inches.
Strung with Nylgut strings and set up with a 7/16 inch bridge the action is 1/8 of an inch at the last fret. Neck angle was adjusted with a brass angle ferrule to lower the action.
A great Old time banjo with a sweet voice, easy to play. Plated second Life Banjo No. 1248-4
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