My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?

Subject: My pic. Dig what he's holding!
From: Downeast Bob
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:38 PM

Just posted a pic of myself to the member photo gallery. I'm curious to see how many can correctly identify the 5-string thingy in the pic and who made it.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Downeast Bob
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:40 PM

Uh.. It might help if you could see it. Click here.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Kim C
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:42 PM

well, since the whole thing doesn't show in the picture...... ;) It's shaped like a mandola or something but if it's only got five strings I don't reckon that's right...

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:46 PM

Or just go into Mudcat Resources, select photos, and scroll down to Downeast Bob. Looks like a cross between a mandolin, a five string banjo, and a guitar. Love the beard and twinkle in you eye.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: death by whisky
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:46 PM

It's a bizzare 19th Century 5 string thingy.A strange hybrid type gizmo.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: JedMarum
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:56 PM

a cleverly designed prop from wierd instrument photo studio?? jes kiddin

don't know, but it looks like fun! What is it??

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:56 PM

Great photo!. I have to admit defeat with the name of the instrument. It looks like a mandola body with a 5-string banjo type neck.

Jo

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 12:57 PM

Nice picture, but sheesh! I went to Lark in the Morning's site and the list is endless of what it possibly could be, so hopefully someone with more knowledge will recognise it and get us out of the blue! Looks pretty interesting....

katlaughing

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Mbo
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:01 PM

It's a banjolin.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: MMario
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:02 PM

obviously it is a five string banjolin!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: JedMarum
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:03 PM

banjolin?? Is she Banjo Bonnie's sister?

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: death by whisky
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:14 PM

A banjolin has a banjo type body,but smaller,double strung like a mandolin.I reckon its a mandjo

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:16 PM

A banjolin is another name for a mandolin-banjo and has 8 strings. It is a banjo bodied instrument with mandolin tuning and is similar in size to a ukele-banjo. I own one and love it - great fun instrument.

Jon

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Metchosin
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:17 PM

Looks a bit like a banjax? or banjacks that one of the fellows from Shooglenifty played when I saw them a couple of weeks ago. The body of the instrument was round though.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Downeast Bob
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:42 PM

Okay, it's a five-string banjo neck on a mandolin body, invented in the 1880s by a NY Luthier. He called it a banjo mandolin or a mandolin banjo (I forget which) but these days, they seemed be named after the luthier himself. I'm sure at least one or two banjo pickers here will know his name.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Dee45
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:44 PM

It's a "mandoline-banjo" built by August Pollmann of New York.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: JedMarum
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:48 PM

sounds cool. I think I need one!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Metchosin
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:53 PM

I should have known that, my Uncle plays a banjo mandolin, Duh!!! but that would have been too easy.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:55 PM

Tuned I would guess, e A D G C ? Like a 5 string violin with a viola C string? If so, I neeeeeeeed one.......

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: death by whisky
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 01:58 PM

Whats peoples opinions on hybrid instruments?I've tried a couple of six string banjos,,but they just sound awful.What does your mandybanjy sound like/play like?

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:01 PM

No offense here Bob, but I classify all those things as "Bastardaharps." Every once in awhile, for reasons unclear to me, folks seem to get a wild hair up their ass and whip together some assorted parts in the hope of creating a new and wonderful sound and instrument. Mostly they drop off the face of the earth with a few loyal follwers tagging along like the marxolin or they actually make it, like the autoharp. Harp is a popular word since it associates with a pretty sound, even though the instrument does not fit the harp definition......an autoharp is a zither, not a harp.

Personally, I'm thinking of attaching a set of drone pipes to an accordion with French Horn bells on the end of each pipe with strung banjo pots atop the bells. I'm thinking that Flatulharp would be a great name.......

Spaw

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:02 PM

I've seen/heard a Mountain Dulcimer with a banjo type head. It sounded really neat, and was loud!

JAB

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Downeast Bob
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:21 PM

Rawhide is right. He even spelled the name of the maker correctly and corrected my misspelling of "mandoline-banjo." It is tuned and played exactly like a five string banjo. I usually use the same tunings I use on the banjo.

Fie on Spaw for his dislike of bastardized instruments. I like this little sucker because I'm not very accomplished on guitar and sometimes I want a mellower, deeper tone than I can get on any of my other banjos.

I can even play blues on it. One of the nicest compliments I've ever had was when a listener said, "Reminds me of Robert Johnson on an old National steel guitar." That's overstating it, but it can achieve a funky, old-time blues sound.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Metchosin
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:29 PM

Are you sure its a banjo mandolin?

Uncle Jack's has eight strings and a banjo body with an open back and skin top. He purchased it from a catalogue over fifty years ago and that is what they called it then.

Rawhide, if uncle Jack's instrument is not the same as Bob's, what is my uncle's instrument known as?

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Metchosin
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:32 PM

aha, cross post, so yours, Bob, is the mandoline-banjo....does that make Uncle Jack's the banjo mandolin then?

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:36 PM

There were a whole bunch of people selling hybrid instruments at that time, and they kept pinching each other's names for them.  Farris of Connecticut patented a banjolin (4-stringed) in 1885, which was tuned in fifths and came in several sizes:  picture here.  Of course "banjolin" (also Banjo Mandolin, Mandolin Banjo and Mandobanjo) subsequently became firmly attached to the mandolin neck/banjo body type; I still have my Granddad's from the late 1930s. I've occasionally seen instruments like Downeast Bob's, though; Shirley Collins used to play one back in the '60s, but irritatingly, I can't remember what she called it.  Most people who have them over here (UK) have had them made specially, and seem to think they're unique, so (confusingly) call them whatever they think most appropriate.  I've seen a picture,  here,   of a bowed zither made by the Marxochime Colony in New Troy, Michigan, and called a banjolin, but that's frankly just eccentric.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:38 PM

To death by whiskey: I play a six string banjo, kinda, and you are right it doesn't sound all that great but that's because mine is a cheaply made instrument and wasn't set up properly.

Check out Harvey Reid's CD titled "Artistry of the Six String Banjo". He plays a Deering Six and Deering's twelve string banjo's and they sound great! Good album too!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 02:57 PM

The Ukelin you refer to Malcolm is eccentric .... and we have a 'Catter who just acquired one....found that smae site for him. IF you check around we ahve folks with a lot of odd stuff around here.

And Bob.....I have a load of bookmarked "Bastardaharp" sites.....love the weird stuff!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 03:04 PM

Got some pretty odd stuff myself!  Sadly, no hybrid bowed zither, but I keep checking the junkshops...

Malcolm

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 03:41 PM

It's a mandinka. No..it's a mandolinka. No...it's a melliflutonium. No...it's a tunegainer. Ummmm....

I give up. But it's a GRRRREAT picture! Nice to see ya, Downeast Bob.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: death by whisky
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 03:44 PM

To Naemanson.I'll try and find that.Somebody somewhere had to get it right.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: MandolinPaul
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 03:58 PM

Thank God. The title of this thread scared me a little.

Paul.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 04:01 PM

The Toronto music store "Songbird" had a Pohlmann in a few months ago at about 300 (US). If I'd been able to sneak it past Heather I would have. Lovely sound, very quiet and one hell of a conversation starter.

Rick

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 04:07 PM

Allan C., just before the "Great Mudcat Adventure" acquired a Ukelin/hybrid bowed zither gizmo. He got it at a hunk shop for 50 bucks or thereabouts as I recall. And I believe Duane D. has a Marxolin.

Spaw....Can't afford ANY conversation starters!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Downeast Bob
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 05:12 PM

As of today, I'm gonna stop calling it an "August Pollman" and call it a Bastardaharp.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 05:30 PM

Shame on you Bob! Surely it deserves a more personal name that although I must admit only one of mine has that honour - my banjolin is "The baby" or sometimes "My baby".

Jon

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 09:36 PM

I think I already mentioned that I as a guitar player also once tried a six string banjo. It wasn't manufactured well, very difficult and hard to play. But it still was some great new experience: Because of its completely different sound pickings that sounded good on the guitar didn't work at all on that banjo, and vice versa. I didn't know before that there are things you can do with one instrument but you can't with a different one just because of the different sound and no other reason. And - when accompanied by a guitar - the result was kind of better than what I could have done with only a guitar played by myself.

So I don't object too much to experiments like banjo mandolins etc. Think of the saxophone: also some kind of bastardaharp, a clarinet mouthpiece fitted to a brass instrument. But what success!

Joerg

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 09:40 PM

Actually Joerg, if you want a kick, take a trombone mouthpiece and a little duct tape and stick it in an alto..........completely different........not great, but it is different.

Spaw

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 09:49 PM

I've met Allan C's ukelin, and that is one strange instrument. Actually, the photie reminded me a little of Allan - he also has a great twinkle and a great beard... Sinsull said it right the first time!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Downeast Bob
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 09:51 PM

Come to think of it, the banjo itself is a kind of bastardaharp -- a cross between the African banjar or banza and a European style drum head. (a line from Nelson Algren's Walk on the Wild Side just surfaced in me brain: "Miscegination and pot theft") And the original bellied mandolin was the bastard child of a violin mated with a small lute.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 10:22 PM

Ya' know, I can't remember who it was around here, but someone a good while back was trying to rig up a twelve string neck on a banjo pot, but I'll be damned if I can remember who it was.

BTW Bob......You're new and this conversation forces me to tell you that the "Icon" instrument of the 'Cat is not that simpleass catfish in the banjo, but the tiple. Read all about how that happened in THE INFAMOUS TIPLE THREAD.

Spaw

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 10:50 PM

Spaw, Deering makes a 12 string banjo! I want one! Right after I achieve a hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, and good 12 string guitar. Also whirled peas and weight loss!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Aug 00 - 10:59 PM

Hmmm......Maybe that's how it came up before Naes.........Been too dmn long and I looked but can't find the thread. I think you need a tiple first.

Spaw

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 03:48 AM

OK then.....is the instrument that Shooglenifty played, which I was told was a banjax or banjacks, a new hybrid that someones come up with or is this an older instrument? Any info?

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Escamillo
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 04:03 AM

For Spaw, and anyone interested in weird instruments, this Clicky thing will drive you to the page of Les Luthiers, Argentinian group of professional musicians who brought humor to classical music, and then to folk, and then to jazz and everything. They deserve a high ROTFLMAO.

See their LIRA DE ASIENTO (toilette sit lyre), GOM-HORN DA TESTA, CONTRACHITARRONE D'AMORE, etc.

One of them, Carlos López Puccio conducts the best (by far) local chamber choir, Estudio Coral de Buenos Aires, dedicated to serious music of the XX century, who has performed in main stages all over the world. Caution: the music of Les Luthiers is highly addictive.

Un abrazo - Andrés

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Naemanson
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 07:41 AM

Andres, they look like they are fun. Unfortunately my Spanish isn't up to understanding the site. What is Carlos Puccio playing? He holds it like a fiddle but...

Imagine that crew working with Peter Schikele!

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: ol'troll
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 08:02 AM

About 20 years ago, autoharp ace Marty Schuman-may he rest in peace- had a local luthier build him a similar instrument. He called it a Banzouki. He made a tape before him death and,I believe, used it on a couple of cuts.I jammed with him lots of times where he played it. He also played a standard 5-string strung with nylon.It gave it a really funky sound.

troll

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: MandolinPaul
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 11:55 AM

Washboard Hank, of Peterborough, Ontario, used to have a huge bathroom sink, mounted on a square of plumbing pipes, with a tuba mouthpiece. He called it The Fallopian Tuba.

Paul.

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 12:10 PM

Can you hold what I'm naming?

Subject: RE: My pic. Can you name what I'm holding?
From: Bert
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 12:31 PM

Andrés, you should not have introduced Spaw to that site. He is crazy enough without that sort of encouragement.

Bert