The Banjos - 1922 Vega Little Wonder Banjolin

This was another odd-ball acquistion made while "on the road". This time I was visiting my parents in Ft. Myers, FL and stopped into the local music store, Brent's Music, just to kill some time. While poking around the usual beat up discards I came across this "little wonder" and was intrigued by its sound. Having bought a mandolin some years before (note how I did NOT say I played mandolin) I thought it would be the natural instrument to add a banjo tone to my arsenal of instruments (and one more reason I should actually learn how to play mandolin)...

The instrument is totally original except for one of the tone head clips having been replaced and it was missing the bridge. The bridge on the instrument in these pictures is only a temporary one and, in fact, the entire instrument has been recently disassembled, cleaned, polished and is now in the shop having a proper bridge made and the setup done. It will actually be playable when I get it back! (And its effective cost will probably have doubled.) No issues were uncovered during the cleaning process and I was amazed at the general structural integrity of the instrument as a whole - the fretboard looks almost brand new!

The case for this instrument is the original case and was bound up like a mummy in black electrical tape until recently. I took almost all the tape off, reglued the seams of the bottom and top pieces which had come loose, reglued the remaining loose tolex (or whatever) covering, sanded the rough edges and did some touchup of the bare wood areas to have it match the worn black covering more closely. I also made a handle for the case since the original one had long since departed... I'll add a picture at some point.

And now for the pictures (click to enlarge):

So concludes the presentation of my 1922 Vega Little Wonder banjolin. Feel free to contact me with any questions and/or comments.

*8o)

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Changes last made on: Friday, December 30, 2011 at 10:16pm