Wm. O. Schmick Lyric Tenor Banjo 1920s, made by Vega

In 1914, William O. Schmick of Camden, New Jersey, across the river from Philadelphia, applied for a patent for a novel way of making a tenor banjo, with the neck and tailpiece attached to a substantial resonator and a pot/tone ring/head that slides out of the resonator after the strings are removed and one bolt on the head next to the neck is loosened. The patent was approved in 1916. Schmick developed a line of instruments using this design, and according to Michael I. Holmes in Mugwumps, online, these were made for Schmick by the Vega company. Check out his page on Schmick. This tenor banjo is probably a century old.

It’s not light, but it’s lighter and shorter than most tenor banjos of that period with resonators. The head is trapped between two parts of the tone ring that is separated from a two-pound iron ring by a maple band and connected with bolts with 1/4” heads. Very stable for adjusting the head. The resonator is solid 1/4” curly maple, as is the neck. The fretboard and plate on the headstock are ebony. This has bar frets! Fortunately, only a few frets show any wear. The original tuners seem to have been replaced a few years ago by Star banjo tuners, and knocking out the old ones seems to have ripped up some of the ebony around a couple of the tuner holes. This was fixed with black epoxy and wood putty. you can see it in the photo of the headstock, but I didn’t notice it until I took the photos this morning. They work fine. (I didn’t do the work.) The cloud tailpiece seems to be original, but the cloud cover is missing. Replacements are to be found, but the banjo works fine without it. There’s a minuscule crack near one of the holes, and another small one to be seen inside, but they don’t need repair. There are some scratches and scrapes on the back. The neck is very comfortable and straight and the action is low. 19 Frets. I have it tuned CGDA. It has no provision for a strap.

This is in very good playing condition, ready to go. No repairs needed. It was made to be used with gut strings if desired. I tried it with nylon baritone uke strings, but the 1st string was too heavy for A, and I broke two of them, then went back to D’Addario tenor banjo steel strings. It works fine with steel strings. It comes with a Superior gig bag. As is common with tenor banjos, the sound is intense with hard picking near the bridge, especially as one moves up the neck. I’ve enjoyed playing it without picks, whether inter picking or strumming. When playing Dixieland, it holds its own with finger strumming without a pick. The YouTube video “Wm Schmick Lyric banjo pat 1914” is NOT the same banjo—it’s in worse condition than mine—but it looks and sounds pretty much the same. My asking price is what I paid (not counting tax and shipping).