This is a Wildwood Troubador (as spelled in the catalog) 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 at reasonable prices. Most of the Wildwood banjos are 5-string models, so it is rare to see a tenor.
Neck - The neck is nicely figured curly maple, ebony fingerboard with his bird motif abalone inlays, ebony peghead with the standard Wildwood mother of pearl inlay design.
Rim - Wildwood designed 2 layer, very thick, maple block rim and Tubaphone style tone ring, curly maple resonator. The tailpiece, tension ring, and armest are engraved and were sold by Stew Mac in the 1980's.
Setup - This is setup in GDAE tuning for Irish trad
Case - no case included, contact for options
Notes - This is a great banjo and was my daily player for close to a year. I am not playing it much now and would like to see it used and appreciated by someone. There is very minimal fret wear and minor relief to the neck. The action is low and plays great. There is brass showing on the armrest, a little patina to the flanges, minor staining on the neck at the thumb position, and a little crazing in the finish on the resonator. There are dents on the sidewall of the resonator.
Specs:
- Scale length - 22"
- Nut width - 1.17"
- # of frets - 19
- Weight - 9lb 6oz
- Action height - .070" @ 12th fret
- Strings - Nickel 12, 18w, 26w, 36w
- Bridge - 9/16" maple/ebony 3 leg
- Head - 5 Star smooth white
- Serial number - n/a