WINDSOR POPULAR

[IAN SALTER]

I've been watching this Windsor 'Popular Model 3' and might, maybe, perhaps, chance a bid on it. As I mostly play a zither banjo, I do like the idea of the 5 peg head on an ordinary banjo.

Can anyone tell me what the ring under the head does and is it a feature that can be used to date the banjo?

[Richard William Ineson]

I've got a Windsor 'Ambassador Supremus' with the five peg head, it's a good loud banjo and very clean, just a very minor chip to the rear of the peg head which would be easily fixed. You can have it for £150.00. I'll send some photos if you are interested.

[Jody Stecher]

I would guess that the ring decreases the vibrating area of the vellum resulting in an increase of clarity and a decrease of lower frequency response. More treble, fewer lows and mids.

[IAN SALTER]

Richard, thank you for your offer, however I've decided, not for the first time, that I really can't justify getting another banjo at the moment. I've got a 7 string and a 6 string, both flush frets and a lovely fretless Dallas 5 string, that I'm having made ready to play. Its just not easy to stop looking at the auction listings. 

Jody, I thought it might be something like that. I've only seen it on some higher grade Windsors that like this one, are thought to be from the 1920s.

[Jake Glanville]

Hi,  there, Ian!  I didn't see this or I'd have replied before.  It's basically a tone ring that you're referring to, designed to put extra pressure on the vellum from below to keep it taut.  Windsor were certainly fitting them to some banjos by 1926.

I see the banjo in the picture is missing the two ebony wedges, which should be held in place by the arrow-head neck-brace, are missing.  Not good!  They're there to stop the wooden pot from going oval under the tension from the strings.  Easily rectified though.

Although I'm normally a strict zither-banjo man I have two Windsor Ambassador Supremus ordinary banjos.  They have detachable resonators and are lovely instruments.  Mine have tunnelled 5th strings, but that isn't always the case with this model.  The earliest evidence I have for a 5th string peg on the headstock is 1850.

All the Best,

Jake.

[Joel Hooks]

I'll call the ring what it is-- a knockoff of the William Farmer patent, later used by Fred Van Eps. 

[Jake Glanville]

Joel Hooks said:

I'll call the ring what it is-- a knockoff of the William Farmer patent, later used by Fred Van Eps. 

[Jake Glanville]

Thanks Joel.  I assume a 'knockoff' is an American expression meaning an unauthorised copy?  And I'm sure you are right.  If that's the case, my feeling is that as soon as anything new entered the world of banjo mania (mid to late 19th Century mostly, but also well into the 20th) others swiftly jumped on the bandwaggon and copied like mad, with or without authorisation, both sides of the Atlantic.

I often wonder why George Teed and Benjamin Boardley get so little mention for their contribution to banjo innovation?

While I hope I have your attention, and entering a completely different discussion, am I right that you don't do 3/8 inch banjo bridges?  I ask because I have a 3/8 B. Gibbs bridge (which I'm sure hasn't been cut down) and would like to find a replacement.  (The arguments about bridges less than 1/2 inch high do not apply when it comes to zither-banjos.)

Yours Cordially, 

Jake.