This is a Wildwood tenor banjo made by Mark Platin in Arcata, CA in the 1980's. Mark was known for building very high quality banjos that featured beautiful wood while offering them for sale for reasonable prices. Most of the Wildwood banjos are 5-string models and it is rare to see a tenor.
Neck - The neck is nicely figured birds-eye maple with a 3-piece center stripe, thick ebony fingerboard with his bird motif mother of pearl inlays, ebony peghead veneer with the standard Wildwood mother of pearl inlay design.
Rim - Wildwood designed 2 layer, very thick, maple block rim and 3lb 7oz flat head tone ring, birds-eye maple resonator.
Setup - This is setup in GDAE tuning for Irish trad
Case - no case but it does fit in the brown case for sale on the website
Notes - This is a heavy and powerful banjo, that is the way Wildwood built them with the thick block rim and best woods he could use. There is a small chip on the top of the peghead veneer (above the i in Wildwood), which can be repaired if requested, there is a small crack on the back of the heel that is stable and not one that I fear would be an issue in the future because of the mass of the wood in that area. Close inspection in the right lighting shows some dents and scratches on the back of the resonator. The nickel is worn on the armrest. Frets show little to no wear. Wildwood nut width is a little wider than most, but the neck is shallow and they play easily with a very low action. I currently play a similar Wildwood.
Specs:
- Scale length - 22"
- Nut width - 1.20"
- # of frets - 19
- Weight - 11lb 12oz
- Action height - .060"
- Strings - Nickel 12, 18w, 26w, 36w
- Bridge - 5/8" maple/ebony 3 leg
- Head - Remo "wagon wheel" white bottom frosted
- Serial number - n/a