"Friction tuners on a zither banjo? I have never seen that before. Please post pictures of the banjo. That repair-work is called "buying-a-new-banjo". Lots of people on here do it all the time! :-)"

"Well first of all it is not at all weird to have a string instruments with strings of different materials, Every type of guitar is like that for instance. Even instruments having entirely unwound metal strings such as sitar or sarode in India have…"

"So I have been doing up the dodgy no-name ZB - new head, correct strings, dismantled and cleaned everything - even took the tuners (non-original friction tuners) apart. It kind of works, but I think it would be better with a few  more changes -…"

"Hi Carrie, very nice. Where can I get the sheet music for this?"

"HA!  I might be older than you :-)    and I don't wanna be in charge of nuttin' neither.  I got a "full plate" these days. But does anyone need to be in charge?"

"I think that it's an interesting project which has not been tackled before, I'm too old to be in charge of anything but if you feel able to coordinate the necessary work I would be glad to weigh my banjos and submit the results for listing."

"I like the Weigh Your Banjo suggestion, Richard. My bathroom scale measures only in pounds and  fifths  of a pound, No ounces and no grams. It's ok like that? For instance my 1909 Bacon Professional FF weighs 6.2 pounds on my scale.…"

"It would be interesting if Ning members compiled a list of the weights of various makes and styles of banjo, I don't think that this has been done before."

"I'm really not sure if it is a problem, but the difference is huge, I would say its three times thicker at one side, I'll email CE. "

"No, that doesn't sound right to me. Specially if it is very noticable. I'm not an expert though. I've only put on some 10 skins or so. I'm a bit surprised about that, though. I've only ordered a skin once from Clifford Essex…"

"mine is probably half that, yes its a poor example. "

"Another aid to identifying a decent ZB is weight, my Sidney Young ZB weighs in at 4.5 kilos."

"It is in very good condition, plays well and is very loud. Sidney Young built most/all of the Cammeyer Zither Banjos i think, Cammeyer retired in 1938 and Sidney Young carried on making them for Alvey Turner. I wouldn't have thought that there…"

"Thanks for postig those pictures, Richard. Looks like it's in very good condition. So who were the builders of the Vibrante and the Vibrante Royal models? Are they known? Are there any differences between the different makes?"

"I have 5, actually :-) At the moment I'm not looking to buy another one but I'm pretty sure that the Vibrante I bought a month ago will not be the last zither banjo I'll ever buy..."