ShortScale.org

My wife found an old Harmony Bakelite body banjo a Goodwill and they sold it to her for $5. I looked into it and it looks like these things were made in the mid to late 60's. Then Harmony went bankrupt. BUt in 72 and 76 the guys who held the company lean started making them again with all of the old parts lying around. Only thing different was the shiny plastic head instead of the original natural head. So for a couple of bucks I replaced the old head (which had a hole in it) and put on some new strings. When it was all disassembled, I polished everything really well and gave it a good cleaning and once over. I am not sure the thing really ever got played and was maybe a wall hanger. I think it still has the original price tag on the back, with the marked down price on it.

Great find. A wife that brings home stringed instruments that is. Banjo is really cool too.

Nice, how's it sound? It is supposed to be open back? Not finding much info on it, not looking very hard either but the only thing I'm seeing on the harmony pages is some stuff about electric banjos from the mid 50s.

Yeah it is susposed to be open back, but there is a resonator version. From what I understand, open back is what blue grass uses. It sounds nice, you know, like a banjo. Not a toy, but a real instrument. I guess a lot of guys like gigging with them because they are worry free and can be had fairly cheap. I know nothing about pkaying banjo so this was fun to get.

info link

I definitely prefer open back. Better sound imo. Great score cur!