Description
The above images show the banjo in question. The first two give an overall inpression. The third image, although not doing full justice to the peghead inlay, gives some sense of the pearl's iridescent highlights and detailed engraving.
Date and Source
This instrument is serial number 49358. This serial number, according to records compiled by Vega expert Jim Bollman, suggests that it was probably manufactured in 1922. The banjo was purchased from luthier Scott B. MacDonald of Huntington, New York. He owned it for 10 years before deciding to liquidate this and a few other instruments from his personal collection. In addition to repairing vintage instruments and building superb custom guitars, resonator guitars, basses, and banjos, Scott writes regular columns such as "The Workbench" in 20th Century Guitar Magazine, and "The Luthier’s Back Porch," for Acoustic Musician Magazine. His work has been highlighted by recent interviews in Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Player magazines. This instrument was part of his personal collection until I purchased it in December of 1998.
Features and Appearance
This Tubaphone is a magnificent specimen, even among other instruments of its type. Although the nickel plating has worn off of the hardware in some places and there are a few minor scratches, this is hardly unusual on an instrument more than three quarters of a century old; its overall condition is superb. With the exception of a more tractable Waverley "fiberskin" head (with its printed logo skillfully removed by MacDonald to preserve a traditional appearance) replacing the original calfskin, this banjo is all original, right down to the solid mother-of-pearl tuning buttons. The 1113/16 inch pot has 30 brackets and, typical of No. 9's, displays nicely detailed marquetry on its exposed edge. The large head size is unusual in an instrument dating from the 1920's. Addressing this point in a 1979 article in Frets comparing a 1908 Whyte Laydie and 1910 Tubaphone (5-strings), George Gruhn observes,
The # 9 shown here has an 11
13/16 inch head which is somewhat unusual .... The 1113/16 inch heads are usually found on the earlier Vegas and pretty much disappear after the mid-20's. Most bluegrass and old-timey players prefer the 1015/16 inch head size, but many folks prefer the larger head which has a sound that’s somewhat more bassy or "tubby." It’s my own feeling that some of the better sounding Vegas are those with the larger heads.
Vega catalogs have referred to Tubaphones with larger heads as Professional Artist models.
The 16-fret neck is also rather unusual, 17 being more typical for tenors of this period. It’s presence may be related to the larger pot size. Having more frets increases the distance from the nut to the rim. If scale length remains constant, this requires that the bridge be moved farther from the tailpiece in order to preserve its distance from the nut. To optimize bridge position on the larger head, therefore, Fairbanks/Vega banjos may have resorted to a shorter, 16-fret neck. Shortening the neck on this 20-inch scale instrument moves both the nut and bridge closer to the tail, thus placing the latter in a more acoustically desirable location. Recent work confirms the wisdom of this Fairbanks/Vega design. In his 1999 volume entitled How to Set Up the Best Sounding Banjo, Roger Siminoff describes acoustic testing for determining the ideal location for a banjo bridge. These tests reveal that banjo heads respond optimally when the bridge is located about 2/3 the distance across the head, measuring from the fingerboard toward the tailpiece. But the bridge must be positioned in accordance with the intended scale length if intonation is to be correct. Thus, the best scale length in relation to head size should result in a location close to this ideal position, as it does in the case of this Style X.
The neck's flame maple can be seen above. The neck is resting on another piece of wood, which may make the image a bit confusing at first. Note also the engraved pearl heel cap and colorful marquetry on the lip of the rim.
The neck features exceptionally attractive highly flamed maple with a light golden stain that gives it a rich appearance but doesn’t mask the splendid grain. A Vega catalog from about 1909 indicates that, at that time, maple necks on Tubaphones were standard only on the Deluxe model, the No. 9 having mahogany. Evidently, this was changed at some later date. The white mother-of-pearl inlays with strong pink and green iridescence are beautifully shaped and expertly engraved and the luxuriant neck carving is deep and clean.
The image above gives a nice view of the splendidly-executed heel carving.
The headstock inlay on this instrument is the same pattern as the No. 9 Gruhn described above. Both are very similar to a Fairbanks pattern that first appeared on the Whyte Laydie # 7 in 1901. He comments that, "The very fancy inlay pattern on the # 9 is typical of this style banjo as well as the Vega Artist [essentially, a No. 9 with a resonator] and Deluxe models. It is also found on some #7 Whyte Laydies ...." The carving on this instrument’s neck heel, as already noted, is more extensive because of its later date. The pattern and quality strongly resemble that pictured for the 1910 instrument Gruhn photographed for his article.
As described below, the Kerschner Unique tailpiece and Planet tuners greatly enhance the user-friendliness of this instrument. Both are original components.
Playability innovations. This instrument displays two features that markedly improve its user-friendliness relative to instruments dating from the 1890's through the 1910's. These are a Kerschner "Unique" adjustable tailpiece and Planet 4:1 planetary tuners. Frank Ford (who shows us the insides of these tuners) has said of these old planet pegs, "To this day, no better, smaller or more elegant mechanism has been designed as a standard banjo tuner." The Kerschner tailpieces were made by Lyon & Healy of Chicago. In their 1993 Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments: A Photographic History, Gruhn and Carter have photos of two Fairbanks/Vega tenors, both of a somewhat later date (1926 and 1928) than this example. Both have Kerschner tailpieces identical to the type found on this banjo, supporting the claim of originality. The Kerschner tailpiece was used on Deluxe models as early as about 1909. The ability of this tailpiece to allow the player to adjust the downward tension of the strings arguably is a marked improvement over the so-called "no-knot," zero-down-force tailpieces often seen on older instruments. A catalog of that era claims that this feature "holds the bridge securely and increases volume of tone 30 per cent." Again, this claim finds support in Siminoff’s 1999 volume that recommends a string angle of 13 to 15 degrees where the strings cross the bridge. The Kerschner Unique achieves this angle while a no-knot’s would be far less steep and would generate less optimal down force. The second important innovation found on this instrument is the type of tuners. (Siminoff's recommendation, however, is not universally endorsed, with even some players of bluegrass banjo preferring much less tailpiece-induced down force.) The pearl-buttoned Planet tuners, made by the Ludwig Company, are of a very early date, bearing their brand name in engraved script with a similarly-engraved likeness of the ringed-planet Saturn. These planetary tuners were not offered on any instruments listed in a 1909 Vega catalog and are obviously of more recent origin. Later sources do mention the use of these tuners on Fairbanks/Vega instruments and they are clearly original to this banjo. Surprisingly, Siminoff regards tuners of this type to provide an acoustical as well as a mechanical advantage: "heavy tuning machines (especially those fitted with large mother-of-pearl knobs) at the peghead seemed to make a valuable contribution to sustain by preventing vibrations from ‘wicking’ off the end of the neck."
Condition and playability. Although sellers’ descriptions are prone to a lot of hype, Scott MacDonald speaks not only as a seller but as a highly respected luthier and widely-published instrument authority. Also, he is a man who chooses his adjectives carefully. After the sale, when his characterization of the instrument no longer posed any financial interest, Scott, described this particular Tubaphone as, by far, the best of several similar banjos he has encountered over the years. He assessed both the craftsmanship and materials as at the high end of an already very exclusive range for banjos of this type. He also judged its condition to be exceptional, with only minimal wear despite its age and originality. My own decidedly less-expert evaluation concurs fully with his.
This view reveals several hallmark features of the No. 9 Tubaphone, including the name-in-scroll logo branded on the dowel stick, matching serial numbers on rim and dowel stick, perforated tone ring, rim without bolts passing through, nickel-plated hardware, fancy marquetry on rim edge, heel cap inlay, and neck carving.
The instrument was set up by Scott, including head replacement and fret leveling-and-polishing, prior to the sale. As one might expect of an instrument owned and played publicly by a master luthier, it plays beautifully, with low, responsive action, superb neck feel, and a commanding tone and volume.
In short, the Fairbanks/Vega Tubaphone Style X No. 9 tenor banjo from the period of this example is widely hailed by leading experts, collectors, and historians as among the finest tenor banjos ever produced. Furthermore, the materials, craftsmanship, and condition of this particular instrument are all of the highest order. It is a visual and musical masterpiece.
This series of articles on the Style X last updated 11/14/01
Contact me at devellis@directvinternet.com