About Contact Please email us here or use the contact form below. This site is not part of any business so replies may be erratic but we are always willing to receive additions, corrections, updates, articles and pictures and we will always credit you with them. Please do sign up for our email list at the bottom of this page for VBM updates. About us This site is based in the UK and came about after a chance e-mail from the late Terry Holland’s son-in-law who agreed to the original British Banjo Makers website being upgraded and he donated a lot of the original research documents to the project. It is not our intention to try and compete with the many individual experts and researchers of the banjo, and its makers, but to provide a single comprehensive reference site for those who have an old banjo and wish to know something about its maker. We are very happy to provide a link to other sites for a particular maker where there is more detailed research information. Updates As the opportunity arises to add to the site we are happy to do so, whether it is through corrections notified to us by interested parties, our own research or the opportunity to buy a banjo from an obscure maker to include on the site. Images One aim of the site is to have a picture or two of banjos by as many of the makers as possible. We are not only interested in the most expensive or highly decorated models but often the run of the mill instrument that are most often likely to turn up. We are always pleased to receive pictures of other banjo owners’ instruments and we will always credit the owner for the pictures. Research Access to census records clearly allows us to fill in some of the specific demographic details about makers BUT the translation from pen and ink record to computer is full of copy errors. Also as some of the Victorian makers could neither read nor write it is interesting to note how their dates of birth change from one census to another. Similarly, the recorded dates of when makers made specific banjos may vary, as clearly, when businesses changed there will have been stocks of components which were subsequently made into instruments, well after the companies had changed management or ownership. Also, as is our wont, we may occasionally buy instruments to get the information needed (and then dispose of them). For example, the purchase of a zither banjo by an unknown maker “Will Birch of Accrington” led to the discovery of his link with Grimshaw. And following a recent trek to North Yorkshire we came away with the Williamson shown on the site and an 1885 Bay State Guitar. A cheap side lot included an old 5 string with a loose perch pole that turned out to be a Grimshaw, now also on the site. Good luck and keep pickin' or strummin' Contact Us Name Email Write a message Submit Thanks for submitting!

Rudolph Wurlitzer 1856 - 1940 next maker Violin making ran in his family and Rudolph Wurlitzer, of German decent, established his business, as an importer of a whole range of European musical instruments, in Cincinnati in the mid 1850s. While violins were his personal passion the company is best known for its organs. As the banjo became a popular instrument he added them to his catalogue and at times he was the distributor for the Howard Banjo and other good quality instruments made for him by Fred Gretch . Pictures courtesy of Cindy Purves

... was in partnership with G R and J H Martin in 1872 trading as Martin, Pollmann & Co. but by 1880 Pollman was an established manufacturer and importer in New York. His wide interests in all types of fretted and automated instruments led to him being granted a patent for a harp attachment for a guitar. He is best known however for his long necked, flat mandolin bodied 5 string banjos and 6 string guitars. Trading out of 70-72 Franklin Street in 1904 his business was incorporated and his two sons Edwin and Arthur joined the board. The following year the business moved to 91-93 Mercer Street by which time their range had expanded to include band instruments, violins and accordeons, but the company soon went bancrupt, the whole stock being purchased and sold off by Buegeleisen & Jacobsen. Pictures courtesy of Intermountain Guitar and Banjo August Pollmann next maker

This maker or retailer was active in New York City during the last 20 years of the 19th Century. As the business grew it became Strebe Brothers. The two originally gut strung examples below show there origins or influences to be from main US wholesale manufacturer of the late 19th C, JH Buckbee , also NY based. Strebe could well have been maker who fitted their preferred inlays, skins, tail pieces and strings to standard Buckbee parts and then branded them as their own. The later "palm tree" courtesy of the Estate of Richard Evans. Images of the earlier converted fretless courtesy of Jerry Mc Hugh The gallery picture of the back of the dowel stick shows the use of roman numerals rather than number stamps, to match the pot and neck suggesting earlier business practises and/or lower production levels. However what is interesting is the 3rd Strebe mark! on the back dowel stick which suggest that Strebe at least assembled the banjos as there is no reason for another maker to stamp the mark 3 times on the dowel stick. It also looks like it was stamped hot after the finish was put on. HF Strebe & Strebe Bros. next maker

An unfretted banjo marked "W. Hardy of Lincoln" as the maker was passed through A.P. Sharpe’s hands but no details of this maker details have been found. Being unfretted indicates the instrument was made about 1880. The recently discovered maker Williamson also of Lincoln made fretless banjos in a very similar genre to Hardy and they were no doubt contemporaries although the neck of this example is made of mahogany. Images courtesy of AE Dowse & Son, Sheffield W Hardy next maker

The August 1910 issue of “The Crescendo” reported that “Dalton MacGee and Leslie Uncless , both of whom are teachers of the banjo at Syracuse, New York, are now making banjos”. The types of banjo which they are making are of original style and are for use in concert work”. Nothing further is known of these makers or their instruments. According to Partee this style banjo had a tremendous volume and brilliance of tone (although predictably somewhat metallic) as was used extensively by such artists as Cha. E Latshan and “Joe” Hart. MacCord retired from banjo making in 1890 and bequeathed some of his experimental banjos to Partee who in turn presented the two oldest instruments to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where they were displayed in a glass case labelled “Banjos of the 19thC”. Dalton MacGee Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

…. was born in Twickenham, Middlesex and was living with his father there in 1851. His father James (b 1802) was listed as a Professor of Music as was James W, aged 20. By 1861 he was married to Elizabeth (1829), had three daughters and was a Banjoist living at Burnham House, Paradise Road Twickenham. He music business was growing and by the time he was 40 he had expanded into a shop, he was employing 3 people including his daughter who was working in his shop and his household included a further 4 sons, a servant and a nursemaid. He was making and repairing instruments as well as selling sheet music and books. By 1871 he had moved to 8 Hill Street Richmond with a household of 11. His first wife then died and he married Emma who was half his age (25) in 1881 when his business and shop was at its peak with 5 employees. That marriage did not last and he married another Elizabeth fathering 2 more daughters. By age 70 his household had reduced and with his wife, one daughter and a servant he was running his shop and living at 18 Hill Street Richmond on Thames, Middlesex. Images courtesy of Richard Evans estate James William Etherington 1831 - 1904 next maker

Thompson & Odell Do you have a pre 1940's banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker ... was founded by Ira Odell in 1872 who went into partnership the following year with C W Thompson at 121 Court Street, Boston, Mass. In 1874 they moved to 86 Tremont Street and relocated several more times into Washington Street as the business grew. They were instrument manufacturers and music dealers making a range of of products both under their own name and under the "Artist”,"Crescent" ,and " Luscomb " brand names, also making for other manufacturers and distributors including Washburn . The company was incorporated in 1891, and Odell retired from the business in 1892 but his son replaced him, Thompson died in 1903 and the company was forced into liquidation in 1905.

In February 1914 J E Dallas moved to 202 High Holborn and by the late 1920's the banjos and zither-banjos bearing the company's name were truly mass-produced instruments and started to bear the trade name of "Jedson." With the outbreak of World War II, J E Dallas ceased to make banjos but in 1947 they started to produce, in small quantities, the inexpensive banjos which have been sold by music shops throughout the country. These also bear the "Jedson" trade mark but are in no way comparable to the pre-war instruments bearing the Jedson name It was in 1963 that the Houghton works in Birmingham were closed down and George Houghton set up workshops for the Dallas company at Bexleyheath, Kent and it was from here that most of the post-war banjos bearing the Dallas name have been made. Pictures of Jedson mid 1930's 5 string banjo Jedson .. JE Dallas & Son next maker

John Alvey Turner .. 1885 to date next maker .. established his first general music shop in the City of London in 1885 and from the early days sold all types of fretted instruments, including his "own make" banjos and zither banjos. The firm has never maintained its own workshops; all high specification instruments bearing the name of John Alvey Turner having been made for them by Temlett , Windsor, Wilmshurst , Dallas , Cammeyer , J. G. Abbott and from 1945 until his retirement in 1956, Sidney Young .

... of 23/25 Constitution Hill Birmingham were established in 1851 as Musical Instrument Merchants, Patentees and Manufacturers." In 1894 they had a stand at the Birmingham Industrial Exhibition on which they displayed and advertised themselves as being agents for Windsor banjos and zither-banjos. Following the success of this Exhibition, they engaged Olly Oakley to demonstrate Windsor instruments in their store. ( In March 1892 Windsor teamed up with Arthur J.Taylor, a prominent Birmingham teacher who taught Olly Oakley, who was working in Taylor's shop at this time. This employment came to an abrupt end and Oakley went to work for Joseph Riley where he sold Windsor & Taylor banjos ). They appear to have started to manufacture their own banjos and zither-banjos a year later and in 1896 filed a patent for an improved zither-banjo, "the inner hoop, or hoop proper, having, outwardly projecting lugs round the bottom edge, which rest on corresponding inwardly projecting lugs on the outer hoop or casing." In the same patent they also included the specification of making, the necks of banjos and like instruments, hollow. In 1897 the firm was advertising its "Riley-Baker Perfected Banjo" in which the hoop was "stiftened or reinforced by an internal annular flange or horizontal feather, which is directed internally from the inside walls , at a point rarther abovce the middle line of the hoop; which is made of two diameters, the upper part being the smaller" The instrument comprised many other improvements which included a tailpiece which was perfected by Grover some years later. The Riley- Baker zither-banjos and the firm’s “Mikado” banjos (a feature of which was the amount of aluminium used in their construction) were widely advertised and John Pidoux was signed up to demonstrate them for the company, in which he played a teaching and advisory role for a few years. John Pidoux played a Riley-Baker zither –banjo at a Will C Peper concert at the St. Martin in the Fields Town Hall, London in May 1898 but the tone of the instrument was said by a critic to be “disappointing”. In 1901, the firms “Jubilee Year” they announced that they had 2000 banjos in stock! .. but they discontinued making banjos and zither-banjos three years later in 1904. Pictures courtesy of John Jukes, .. also see Riley-Baker This Riley, pictures courtesy of Clay Mileson shows the influence of the Stewart Special Thoroughbred on the decoration and carving. Joseph Riley 1831 - next maker

When the banjo started to be popular with the dance band boom of the early 1920s, Rose Brothers manufactured and sold, to music shops, their "Savana" range of inexpensive banjos. (The name was coined from the Savoy Hotel and its broadcasting "Havana" band.) Go to Stanley Rose Savana next maker