Gibson MB-2 #8594-1
While the tenor banjo was designed to be
more accessible to players already familiar with the mandolin, the
mandolin-banjo went one step further and combined the tuning, short scale, and
doubled strings of the mandolin with a banjo body. #8594-1 dates to circa
1927 (see
Gibson banjo
serial numbers vs. factory order numbers)
and is made of dark-finished maple with
bracket shoes and a flange with diamond-shaped openings. The rim is ten
and a half inches in diameter and the tone ring is a simple tubular design.
Gibson's prewar literature described the mandolin-banjo as "the essential
soprano voice in the Banjo Band" and claimed that it combined "a certain portion
of the mandolin sweetness with brilliancy, volume and tone quality of the banjo
into one marvelous instrument." As banjo ensembles fell out of favor
beginning in the early 1930s, production of mandolin-banjos declined sharply.
Photos
courtesy of Sean Needham.
