Antique and Vintage Banjos

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When traders brought African slaves to America, the slaves brought their own music—and musical instruments—with them. The banjo was one such gadget. With a body made from a gourd, the banjo was first reported in 1620 by the captain of a ship on...
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When traders brought African slaves to America, the slaves brought their own music—and musical instruments—with them. The banjo was one such gadget. With a body made from a gourd, the banjo was first reported in 1620 by the captain of a ship on the Gambia River. Structurally, the banjo is very similar to a drum, with an animal skin stretched over a rim. Africans and African-American slaves could obtain the necessary materials and construct the instrument relatively easily. Soon white Americans were playing banjos, too. In the late 1820s and 1830s, minstrel shows, in which white performers in blackface imitated stereotyped African Americans for comic effect, brought the banjo to even more public prominence. Joel Sweeney, in particular, used the instrument in his minstrelsy performances, which created a connection between the banjo and humor that persists even today. Sweeney bought his banjos from William Boucher of Baltimore, who may have been the first manufacturer to sell banjos to the public. The banjo’s role in minstrelsy and its increasing popularity led to a standardization of banjo materials and production methods. Over the decades, the design became more sophisticated, especially in the 1870s and 1880s, when banjos began to include frets, steels rings, a tone ring, and a resonator. Banjo player Henry C. Dobson and his banjo provider, J. H. Buckbee, may have been responsible for many of these innovations. The banjo continued to spread into the 1920s and ’30s with the rise of radio. Stations often aired live performances featuring country groups, which frequently included a banjo. With World War II, however, banjo production declined, as metal was needed for the war effort. Interest in the instrument waned as the guitar became the land’s dominant stringed instrument. Since the banjo’s standardization, producers have crafted many variations, but most banjos have either four or five strings. (The fifth string is usually shorter than the rest...
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