Paramount Style C Tenor Banjo (1924)
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Paramount Style C Model Tenor Banjo (1924), made in New York City, serial # 3385, natural lacquer finish, laminated mahogany rim and neck, rosewood fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
This is an early example of a Style C tenor banjo, one of Paramount's most attractive designs. Although far from the top of the line the Style C is still a very fancy instrument, richly decorated with multiple lines of wood marquetry and elaborate engraved pearl inlay. The overall look is dark finished mahogany with chain pattern wood edging, wood and celluloid binding and colored wood inlay. The mahogany neck is of multilaminate construction with carved heel, carved peghead back and multilayered wood binding with a chain marquetry inlay up the sides.
The Paramount "fiddle" shaped headstock is decorated with an extremely fancy engraved pearl inlay and the fingerboard has shaped and engraved pearl in a flying bird motif. The hardware includes the vastly superior first-generation milled-housing Page tuning pegs (perfectly functional 100 years along), the Paramount adjustable tailpiece and the earlier-style flat wire armrest. The later Page pegs used after 1924 were built in a cheaper cast housing that has usually failed and been replaced by now, while this earlier example remains nicely original.
Paramount banjos were the most important instruments of their day which introduced the salient features of the modern resonator banjo to the world. These instruments were the firm favorite with professional jazz musicians in the 1920's and are frequently seen in period photographs, especially with the pioneering African-American Jazz Orchestras of the period. Selling originally for $185, the Style C was a relatively affordable but still upscale professional grade tenor Banjo from that instrument's heyday, and a fine professional orchestra banjo a century along.
Overall length is 33 3/4 in. (85.7 cm.), 11 1/4 in. (28.6 cm.) diameter head, and 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 23 in. (584 mm.).
Overall this is a good playing example, showing some general wear but the only alteration is a later refret with larger wire. There is general wear overall to the all-original finish with dings, dents and scratches most heavily as usual to the resonator back. None of the elaborate marquetry there has been lost. The back of the neck is worn partially down to the wood in the center from the first to the fifth fret area. The lacquer over the headstock inlay is nearly all intact; many of these have flaked badly by now.
All hardware are original except the small nut holding the tailpiece and (it appears) the armrest screws. The plating has some general wear and tear after a century of use. The old-style Page tuners still work properly; it is rare to find a Paramount later than this one with the pegs intact so that is a nice touch. When the fingerboard was trued and refretted some of the very delicate engraving on the inlay was partially lost, while some remains mostly in the higher positions. One of the small wingtips is missing from the upper bird at the 7th fret.
Even the bridge and Rogers skin head appear to be original period pieces, and with the somewhat larger frets fitted (Paramount used almost comically tiny flat wire originally) this is a fine player with the expected powerful sound. This is a very nice find in an original giggable Paramount tenor, in the battered but functional OHSC. In the pockets are some string packets from various eras, an original Paramount wrench and a period heating/lighting element intended to keep the head dry (we would not recommend plugging it in now!). Overall Very Good + Condition.
This is an early example of a Style C tenor banjo, one of Paramount's most attractive designs. Although far from the top of the line the Style C is still a very fancy instrument, richly decorated with multiple lines of wood marquetry and elaborate engraved pearl inlay. The overall look is dark finished mahogany with chain pattern wood edging, wood and celluloid binding and colored wood inlay. The mahogany neck is of multilaminate construction with carved heel, carved peghead back and multilayered wood binding with a chain marquetry inlay up the sides.
The Paramount "fiddle" shaped headstock is decorated with an extremely fancy engraved pearl inlay and the fingerboard has shaped and engraved pearl in a flying bird motif. The hardware includes the vastly superior first-generation milled-housing Page tuning pegs (perfectly functional 100 years along), the Paramount adjustable tailpiece and the earlier-style flat wire armrest. The later Page pegs used after 1924 were built in a cheaper cast housing that has usually failed and been replaced by now, while this earlier example remains nicely original.
Paramount banjos were the most important instruments of their day which introduced the salient features of the modern resonator banjo to the world. These instruments were the firm favorite with professional jazz musicians in the 1920's and are frequently seen in period photographs, especially with the pioneering African-American Jazz Orchestras of the period. Selling originally for $185, the Style C was a relatively affordable but still upscale professional grade tenor Banjo from that instrument's heyday, and a fine professional orchestra banjo a century along.
Overall length is 33 3/4 in. (85.7 cm.), 11 1/4 in. (28.6 cm.) diameter head, and 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 23 in. (584 mm.).
Overall this is a good playing example, showing some general wear but the only alteration is a later refret with larger wire. There is general wear overall to the all-original finish with dings, dents and scratches most heavily as usual to the resonator back. None of the elaborate marquetry there has been lost. The back of the neck is worn partially down to the wood in the center from the first to the fifth fret area. The lacquer over the headstock inlay is nearly all intact; many of these have flaked badly by now.
All hardware are original except the small nut holding the tailpiece and (it appears) the armrest screws. The plating has some general wear and tear after a century of use. The old-style Page tuners still work properly; it is rare to find a Paramount later than this one with the pegs intact so that is a nice touch. When the fingerboard was trued and refretted some of the very delicate engraving on the inlay was partially lost, while some remains mostly in the higher positions. One of the small wingtips is missing from the upper bird at the 7th fret.
Even the bridge and Rogers skin head appear to be original period pieces, and with the somewhat larger frets fitted (Paramount used almost comically tiny flat wire originally) this is a fine player with the expected powerful sound. This is a very nice find in an original giggable Paramount tenor, in the battered but functional OHSC. In the pockets are some string packets from various eras, an original Paramount wrench and a period heating/lighting element intended to keep the head dry (we would not recommend plugging it in now!). Overall Very Good + Condition.