thanks to the generosity of friends i have a banjo! travis gave it to me (along with two other instruments). now that i have these parts all in one place i'm going to see if i can put it together.
here it is: banjo pot and neck, nice set of new tuners, bag of hardware and pieces of bone. i had dismantled it before i flew back from SF (many thanks to scrunch for shipping the neck and tuners, after they had a little side-trip to WA)
i've been trying to figure out the details of the instrument. 17-fret (short scale) tenor. the pot is 12" in diameter. if the neck and pot were originally together (and authentic) then it's an old Vega. From this website the serial number inside the pot dates to 1921.
here are some more shots, including two cryptic scrawlings on the neck/dowel, outer pot with a mix of old, replacement and missing J-hooks, and the battered but intact headstock.
so far i have only conservatively cleaned the pot (dry dusted with q-tips) and wiped the neck wood with orange oil. next i'm making a new nut from bone. the old nut consists of two broken pieces (shown below with the new pre-nut bone piece before cleaning/degreasing/shaping).
this is fun.
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