Scan 63
Musical Courier 1893-09-27: Vol 27 Iss 707, 1893
48 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 64. See the scan on archive.org.
1services for. I got an old peck measure out in the barn and I knocked out the bottom of it and sawed the band in halves, and I sandpapered it all over and made it look fine.
3Then I divided it off so that I could get the brackets about 1 3-16 inch from centre to centre, which make just forty-eight all around it.
5I drove to town then and stopped at Foster's—that's a place where they keep second-hand goods, but everything is just as good as new there—and sold much cheaper than anywhere else; he said he would put the brackets in at $1.50, seeing I wanted forty-eight of them, and I got a good head, calf skin, of him for 80 cents, he said it was the best that was made. I forgot to say that I told him previously that I had played on the banjo for about seventeen years. He asked me if I ever played on the stage and I told him I did, and that I played in the Town Hall at —— a number of different times, that was why, he said, he always made a discount to old players.
7He didn't know what would be the thing to polish the banjo hoop with, but thought carriage varnish was the most suitable, so I put that on. But I had an awful old job to get the head on, it took Mr. Wilkins (he is the grocery man down at the crossing) and myself. He got his two knees down on the hoop, while I hammered down the other half, and how we did sweat, gosh! but the hardest part is over now, for the neck or arm won't be so difficult to make, but since I finished the head part I have struck a grand idea in improvements in banjo making.
9I kept awake the other night after I got into bed, and could not sleep until I had worked out the idea, and this, Mr. Stewart, is what I have represented in the inclosed sketches. You will readily see by them the useful improvements I suggest, and which I think I can get patented at Washington, as I have shown it to different music store people, and they all thought it to be the best thing of the kind they had seen for banjo improvement, and for me to write to you about it for suggestions to make, and that you would be the best to rely on.
11I will explain the object of my improvement, which I call the Echo Vibrating Air Chamber Banjo, as I found out from those that sell banjos that this would be the most correct term for mine. One gentleman said the nearest thing of the kind that he had ever seen was a Mr. Edgar Dobson's make, of New York, only that mine was differently constructed, and far superior to his, as the arm can be made of thin brass sheets of about one-sixteenth inch thickness, with the raised frets blazed on.
13They say my strongest claim I could make in the patent would be the cold air chamber, as shown clearly in the sketch I have made. What I propose is casting the band or head of banjo out of bronze metal, the desired size, and brazing the arm on to the said head afterward, then the whole nickel plated, which would give a handsome effect, and the echo vibrating air chamber will give a much more carrying tone than the old-fashioned style banjo.
15Another great improvement, the left hand will always be kept cool when fingering the neck. I have shown the five small holes under the neck or arm, but they could just as well be on the side and could act as position marks for the frets and would always be in sight. Of course you are well aware, Mr. Stewart, the great trouble on the old Clarke banjo, especially in the summer time in this respect, and again, the metal fingerboard will be much better in making slides up and down the neck.
17Now that I have informed you of my great advancement for the banjo, it takes men of yearly experience to see what is needed the most nowadays; you will kindly furnish me with your view in regard to it, or consult with those you have dealings with, and let me know your suggestions on any details that could add to it.
19The more I have shown this to people the more I am inclined to think I have got to the top round of the ladder. Mr. Stewart you will see there is money in it, and now is your time to act.
21Let me know what claim would be the best to make in patent, also what the cost would be to take out one. You can keep the sketch as I have the original one with date on. Let me know what is the best thing to polish the banjo arm I am making for banjo. I put carriage varnish on head, but Mr. Wilkins thinks white shellac would be better.
23The great mistake this inventor seems to have made is the omission of an ice reservoir and fanning attachment for generating and circulating the cool air through the chamber. A wag was once telling an old lady that in a certain country he had visited it was so hot that it became necessary to feed cracked ice to the hens in order to prevent the laying of boiled eggs. His auditor seemed to be thinking intently for a time, when she suddenly brightened up and replied with the following query: "If it's so hot as all that, where do you get the ice in that country?"
25Would-be inventors, not being confined solely to the banjo business, cannot reflect discredit upon our fraternity specifically; as said before, they infest every line of business.
27Another curious class are the thoughtless and superficial. For instance, in my mail recently was a beautifully written letter from a party who wanted to have made to order a guitar so constructed that the first five or six frets of the finger board would come closer together than was usually the case; the other frets to be left as commonly the custom. Here was a suggestion that fixed laws should be set at variance, or a musical scale be constructed in direct violation to all known laws of acoustics. Happily I am not a guitar manufacturer, and therefore was enabled to avoid any lengthy explanatory correspondence in this case.
29Sometimes people will want to have banjos made with certain alterations from the original plan, that seem absurd to the experienced manufacturer. One party wants to have the ebony fingerboard of a proposed banjo sent to him by mail, in order that he may inlay some original pearl design therein, when he is to return it to be glued to the banjo neck. When we consider how necessary it is to have the ebony strip glued to the basis of the neck long in advance of the time of its final completion, in order to avoid the annoyance of warping after the instrument has been finished, such suggestions appear very absurd. However, one cannot expect that every one interested in the banjo or guitar has given so much attention to the subject that he knows all he should know about it. Even persons who carry in their pockets watches costing $200 or more are not always competent to keep them in good running order. It not infrequently happens that a man will leave his watch for repairs because he cannot get it to run, and upon its being wound up it is found to be running as usual. Just so it is with a banjo player when he forgets to stretch the head on a new banjo, and finding its tone getting dull in a few days he declares that all the tone has dropped out of the instrument and returns it to the manufacturer to have it repaired. In another instance it is the strings. He thinks the frets have somehow gotten false, not knowing that gut strings are quite as apt to be of uneven thickness, and hence false, as to be of even thickness and true. Or perhaps he has removed the bridge from the instrument, and putting it back gets it one half inch out of place, with a like result, false notes.
31A few years ago there was little chance for anyone who wished to study the banjo, for the few books published as instructors for the instrument gave little if any general information. When a beginner got a false string he could not tell what was wrong with the notes he attempted to pluck from it. Well do I remember my first experience with a banjo. It was a "tack head" affair, strung with guitar strings. I had "Phil. Rice's and Winner's" "Banjo Methods," and I opened one of them at the beginning, and, seating myself at a piano, attempted to pull the strings up to the notes indicated. The neck of the "tub" began to creak and bend, when suddenly I heard a snap, and at the same time received a stinging blow on the hand. Looking downward and about me, I saw that the piece of wire which had been used to fasten the tail-piece had parted. The bridge I found in a corner of the room, some feet distant. I have no doubt that hundreds of others have experienced the same difficulties. I was familiar with the rudiments of music as applied to the violin, piano, &c., but I found difficulty in applying the same to the banjo, and at the same time follow the course of instruction laid down in such books as I have mentioned. I will venture to say that more general information on the banjo is contained in the catalogue I circulate free of charge to-day than was to be found in all the instruction books taken together at the time I have reference to.
33With the advance in the arts of banjo making and banjo playing, musical literature as adapted to the banjo goes hand in hand. Those who have any desire to make a practical study of the instrument to-day have not the great difficulties to block the way that we had to contend with in our early days. Good books can now be had, and plenty of suitable music, and they do not cost any great amount of money.
35It is not so very long ago that we used to see the advertisements of "Great Professional Banjos," &c. This term has happily now been changed to "Concert Banjos." A certain professor used to advertise his "Great Stage and Parlor Banjos," which style was paraphrased by me as the "Great Stage and Wagon Banjos," until finally such absurd terms were discontinued.
37Many banjos advertised and sold by different pretended makers were so much alike in general appearance and make up, that a careful observation led one to believe the "different makes" emanated from one and the same manufacturer—which was often the case. The most striking point of merit advanced for such instruments by their sellers, was the great number of brackets and screws that surrounded the rim of each instrument.
39At length some enterprising manufacturer struck a rich vein of humor by having a very large quantity of cheap brackets made, and entering into the large operation of making banjos in lots of 1,000, each instrument having thirty-eight of these attachments. The outcome was the "thirty-eight bracket banjo," which soon flooded the cheap music stores and pawnbrokers' establishments throughout this country. These instruments were dubbed "Hock Shop Banjos," and soon took their places in line with the cheap "trade fiddles" that so largely flooded the market. Finding the thirty-eight bracket affair a "good seller," other factories began turning out the same kind of stock, only making and selling them a little cheaper. Prices were cut, and cut again, until all profit on such sales was extinguished, and the reputation of the instruments becoming so firmly established as "N. G." little is heard of this class of instruments to-day except from small country towns and villages, where the sound of a really good banjo has not yet been heard.
41Many jobbers and manufacturers to-day continue to advertise what they call a "Piccolo Banjo," having a rim 8 inches in diameter. Those who do not know what a piccolo banjo is purchase one of these instruments on account of its cheapness, and then no wonder that they complain of the piccolo banjo parts in printed music for banjo orchestra or banjo clubs. An 8 inch rim banjo cannot be tuned to the required pitch, and really has no right to the name. Therefore when a new club organizes it is far better to obtain instruments from a maker of reputation, and one who thoroughly understands the uses to which each instrument is to be put. The piccolo banjo is a brilliant instrument, and almost indispensable in a well organized banjo club, but it is necessary to have the right kind of instrument, together with music that is correctly arranged, in order to produce good results.
43Time and time again I have played the banjo for persons who never before heard the instrument properly played; many of whom had never heard the sound of a good banjo, but only what we now term "tubs." The result has always been the same—they were astonished and pleased. I am well aware of the fact that even in here, in my own city of Philadelphia, there are thousands who have not yet been made acquainted with the musical tones of a well made and well played banjo.
45The past four or five years have brought the instrument much nearer to that plane which it is sooner or later bound to occupy, and, with such truly good teachers as Thomas J. Armstrong, Paul Eno and others in our city, much will doubtless be accomplished in the near future.
47The Hamilton Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar Club, of this city, under the able direction of Mr. Eno, has become one of our post popular and attractive clubs, having been awarded first prize at the well-known prize concerts given in January of the years '92 and '93. With a few more such organizations as this, and a few more solo performers on the banjo, such as E. M. Hall, Geo. L. Lansing, A. A. Farland, W. A. Huntley, R. R. Brooks, Geo. W. Gregory, Paul Eno and others' we feel the future of the only native American instrument assured.
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