Tenor Banjo
Origins. According to Fairbanks/Vega authority Jim Bollman,
that company began manufacturing tenor banjos in about 1912 in response to the growing
popularity of dance music generally and the tango in particular. (In fact, these 4-string
instruments were originally called "tango" banjos and some believe that the name
"tenor banjo" is a corruption of "tango banjo.") This style of dance
music required considerable volume for instruments to hold their own in the larger and
louder ensembles it spawned. The tango craze and its requirement for louder instruments
adversely affected the popularity of the mandolin, especially among professional
musicians. Earlier, mandolins had eclipsed the gut-strung 5-string banjo and achieved wide
popularity with professional and amateur musicians alike. Banjo manufacturers realized
that adapting the steel strings and plectrum playing style of the mandolin to a banjo
family instrument had great potential, especially if that instrument were tuned to fifths
in the manner of a mandolin. The tenor banjo was the most successful and enduring result
of that realization.
Above, Mandolin and Banjo Peacefully
Coexisting Before the Former Evolved
Into its Flat-Back Variant and
Became a Threat to the Latter.
Its utility was especially evident during recording sessions, which required musicians to huddle around the horn of a primitive recording device that directly transferred acoustical vibrations to squiggles on a wax medium. The tenor banjo had little difficulty producing sufficient volume, even in the difficult-to-capture lower-pitched ranges of the audio spectrum.
Early Acoustical Recording Apparatus for
which
The Banjo (seen at rear, center) Served so Well.
In fact, Jazz author Mervyn Cook (1998) reports that when "King" Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (featuring Louis Armstrong) recorded in 1923, their bass player, Bill Johnson switched to banjo (an open-back Vega No. 9 Tubaphone tenor, as seen below) for rhythm after playing his standup bass caused the recording stylus to jump out of its recording groove!
Above, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Note Bill Johnson's Style X at the Feet of Cornetist Louis Armstrong. Below, Close-Up of Banjo.
Vega tenors. As alluded to earlier, Tubaphones were available in several styles differing primarily in ornamentation. They shared inclusion in the Fairbanks/Vega product line with several other models of banjo. Among tenor banjos, the full range of models included, in ascending order of quality, ornamentation, and cost, the Style F, Style N, Little Wonder, Whyte Laydie Style R, Style M, and Style X No. 9 Tubaphone. The most elaborately decorated of the widely produced (as opposed to custom) tenor models was the Style X No. 9. The "Style X" designation was to distinguish the tenor model from the 5-string No. 9 Tubaphone, which was similarly appointed. A very small number of "Deluxe" Tubaphone models were produced. Although technically "production" models listed in the catalogs of the time, few were made and surviving examples are very rare collector’s items. These were even more elaborately decorated than the Style 9. A Deluxe Tubaphone belonging to dealer, collector and historian Jim Bollman, for example, included in a 1984 MIT Museum exhibit celebrating Boston’s turn-of-the-century banjo manufacturers has been described in Frets as, "the rarest open-back 5-string banjo in the world".
Hank Karch with Vegaphone No. 9, a
Resonatored Version of the Style X First Introduced in August, 1923.
As rare as Deluxe Tubaphone 5-strings are, tenors are apparently even rarer. Bollman’s listing of several hundred Vega serial numbers includes only one Deluxe Tubaphone tenor, from 1926 when few open-back tenors were being produced. It is thus quite possible that this Deluxe tenor was special ordered. Furthermore, Style X tenors incorporated features that, among the earlier 5-string Tubaphones, were found only on the Deluxe model. According to a Vega catalog from about 1909, for example, only Deluxe Tubaphones had maple necks and the Kerschner "Unique" adjustable tailpiece. Interestingly, these are the only two features of the Deluxe models that are structural or operational rather than purely cosmetic. Both features are included on Style X No. 9's.
Books Such as the One Above,
Popular in the 20's Promoted Tenor Banjos.