I have this curious old banjo that I bought in damaged condition in a book store in Winnipeg. It has no trademark or maker's name on it. I believe it is of European manufacture, English or German. It's the kind that has all five pegs on the head instead of having one sticking out the side for the fifth string. Instead, there is a brass tube under the fingerboard that starts at the fifth fret and goes up to the nut. You run the fifth string through there to keep it out of the way. Someone told me these are called zither banjos, but I don't know if that's true, and if it is, why it is.

Theoretically, if the nut is correctly grooved, you could string this instrument with five strings tuned in fifths, like a tenor banjo with an extra bass, I guess. Kinda like Tiny Moore's five string mandolin, but lower pitched.

Does anyone know anything about these beasts? I spent a couple of hundred dollars on it, new skin head (I should have gone WeatherHead), new bridge, new nut, strings, and it is now a funky sounding playable device, though the neck's a bit unreliable as you go up. Good for clawhammer style.

Photo is available, that is, I can scan it and send it if anyone is interested.

Stoo Ball VAncouver, Canada