Dear banjo friends,

A little while ago a gent on the BHO posted that he had been given several copies of this publication.  After a small amount of convincing he sent them to me for scanning.

That deed is now complete.

There are 14 issues (13 complete, one with only the first page) now available for your enjoyment.

This is by no means a complete collection.  If any of you fine folks have the rest of them, I'd be willing to scan and pay postage both ways.  Making them available to future researchers (or anyone who is interested) is much more important than having them turn to dust in a box-- then gone forever!

What I did put up are interesting.  There is a letter from Frank Converse written in true old man shake-your-fist/ kids-these-days manner.  There is an article on Eph Horn's banjo (you can see him holding this in a photo of him with Dan Bryant).  There is lots of stuff about George Lansing as well as other well known (at the time) banjoists.

After reading through them I find it a pretty solid banjo publication.

Find them here… https://archive.org/details/@joel_hooks#uploads

While you are there check out the rest of the stuff I've scanned and posted.

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Thanks so much for this, Joel. My first banjo was a Gatcomb. I got it when I was 11 years old.  It was stolen from me when I was 28. It was well made, with a light wooden hoop, what I think was a walnut neck,  and had inlaid markers instead of frets. The tailpiece was wood. I wonder if any photos were taken of it.  In which issue is the Frank Converse letter, please?

You are welcome!  I've not played a Gatcomb that I can remember.  Evidently the late versions have a well designed neck adjuster.

The Converse rant is in Vol. V No. 11.

When I click on the link to that issue from the archive page I am shown volume 12. Please advise!

BTW, volume 12 has some great doggerel poetry. Exactly my level of refinement. Nothing to do with banjos but funny.


Joel Hooks said:

The Converse rant is in Vol. V No. 11.

I have solved the puzzle. Volumes 11 and 12 are both listed as 11. I clicked on the "other 11" and got 11 and not 12/

These are fantastic.  A highlight for me is the reader who wrote in as "Zip Coon".  The advertisements are especially interesting.  My first classic banjo was a Gatcomb circa 1890.  It was a nice banjo.


The article "The Matinee Girl" that follows after the Frank Converse rant is hilarious.  I think the author (Percy Vere) would have died if he had lived to see the groupies of the modern era.

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