New Banjeaurine

[Andrew 'blind boy' Butler]

I just bought this lovely Banjeaurine. It's stamped T.W.Reamers. 

Joel Hooks thinks it could be J.B. Schall parts.

If anybody has any light to shed on Reamers please let me know.

[Pär Engstrand]

Lovely indeed!

I wonder why they didn't make it a full 22 frets? Looks like there could be enough space.

[Joel Hooks]

Because past the 15th on this banjo the frets pretty much become useless for anything other than picking out single notes in a clumsy fashion.  No position playing above the 13th.

Or there is the other reason-- before rectifying and flexible varnishes strings were often untrue.  The higher registers showed this the most.  To prevent the constant complaints of "my banjo is fretted wrong" when a false string was installed, manufactures only put on 20 fret necks or less (most often 19).  That solved the problem of complaints.

Strings got better in the mid 1890s and SSS introduced the three octave neck (well-- reintroduced it as he had written in the late 1870s that banjos should have 22 raised frets). Others copied.

I feel that false strings were the biggest factor in people like SSS promoting frettless banjos for so long.

Pär Engstrand said:

Lovely indeed!

I wonder why they didn't make it a full 22 frets? Looks like there could be enough space.

[Pär Engstrand]

Thanks for clearing that up, Joel. It makes sense. I wasn't thinking of that. Also good for me to keep in mind if I ever want to buy a Banjeaurine. I would have been looking for one with 22 frets... :-)

"Strings got better in the mid 1890"

I thought strings got worse since they stopped making them by hand and introduced machines to do the job? Or did that happen a few decades earlier and the machines (and the procedure) had already gotten better by mid 90s?

"I feel that false strings were the biggest factor in people like SSS promoting frettless banjos for so long."

Interesting theorie. I've never thought about that but it does make sense. I like a frettles banjo for some things but up the neck, one simply doesn't get such a clear sounding tone as with a fretted banjo. Or at least I don't. With a better technique it might be possible. That's why I never understod why frettless instruments was still produced in such numbers so late. The advantage with a frettles is of course a flexible intonation.