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Comment by Moritz Voegeli on April 10, 2017 at 9:33pm

I found some more information about the strange looking 32 fret French wood top 5 string «resonator» banjo from 1890, with a tunneled drone string and 6 pegs, although only 5 being used, a «zither banjo», see https://creekdontrise.com/acoustic/zither_banjo/zither_banjo.htm.

Comment by turtlehead on April 10, 2017 at 12:36pm

That French banjo is something else Moritz.  32 frets!  That's getting quite close to these, although I still haven't seen any that use the acoustic guitar style bridge/saddle. The Gibson is very cool too - a 1938 electric is very unique I'd say.  Thanks again for looking and sharing.

I just heard back from the Detroit Historical Museum and they have forwarded me to a curator who is going to look in their database to see what they can find.  I'll keep you posted.

Comment by Moritz Voegeli on April 8, 2017 at 9:37pm

Kind of a museum of used and antique musical instruments is the catalogue on http://www.palmguitars.com/, where the instruments sold or for sale often are documented with a bunch of photos about their details. There I found two all wood banjos:

a French wooden 5 string banjo from 1890, http://www.palmguitars.com/item.html#1799
a Gibson Electric Plectrum Banjo from 1938, http://www.palmguitars.com/item.html#1603

Comment by turtlehead on April 7, 2017 at 1:03pm

Thanks Gary, I'll be interested if you hear anything.  I have an e-mail into the Detroit museum as well.

Good info Moritz, thank you for the links.  Some of those are very similar and I was surprised that banjola was such a recent term. 

Darn Jim, I figured you'd know something as you were the first video link on Google when I searched wood top banjos ;)

Comment by Moritz Voegeli on April 6, 2017 at 8:51pm

P.S. For this type of instrument, «banjola» seems a quite recent term, check 

https://banjolas.com/

Comment by Moritz Voegeli on April 6, 2017 at 5:55pm

The instrument of the Appalachia Museum, Clinton, Tennessee, is labelled «banjo lute»: with this term you will find some information on the net. «banjo mandolin» seems to denote a totally different instrument.

On the museum-slideshow you will find some more «all wood banjos», in addition even cigarbox, bedpan and hubcap banjos.

Comment by Gary W aka Rev. Bluejeans on April 6, 2017 at 10:20am

TH:  I reached out to the OKC Museum.  Hope to have more to share after they have a look....

Comment by Gary W aka Rev. Bluejeans on April 6, 2017 at 10:09am

Too cool, Turtlehead!  Certainly looks do-able for some of our CBN craftsmen!  I may send a copy of your picture to the American Banjo Museum, now located in downtown OKC.  Here's a link:

http://www.americanbanjomuseum.com/

Comment by Jim Morris on April 6, 2017 at 9:40am

I don't have any info but they look like cool old instruments.

Comment by Moritz Voegeli on April 6, 2017 at 9:07am

turtlehead hi, check http://handmademusicclubhouse.com/video/museum-slideshow at 3:19 where you will find a similar instrument