Five-string mystery…
Hi Banjo folks!
I’m hoping for some help/guidance/insight around a banjo I’ve recently inherited from a relative. I am a guitarist and know very very little about banjos, and am curious to know whether I’m looking at a certain style/type of instrument here.
Here is what I know:
- There are six tuning pegs on the headstock
- There are four notches on the nut
- There are five notches on the bridge
- There is one hole and a single nut on the fifth fret, but no tuning peg on the neck, as I typically see on five-strings. It looks like this belongs to a string that runs through the neck and up into a tuning peg on the headstock
- The instrument is likely 90+ years old
Google yields few results for “five-string banjo no tuning peg on neck” and I’m struggling to figure out what is happening here. It’s possible that the bridge/nut have been replaced, but what is going on with the sixth tuning peg on the headstock/five-notch bridge, and what is with the string through the neck?
Is this typical of a particular style of instrument I don’t know about?
Grateful for any insight for this complete newb!