The Banjolin (mandolin-banjo)?

My grandfather pulled out a mandolin banjo from his attic. It is a Bruno and has an open back. I want to get it repaired to play not sell, where in the world would I get this fixed up? The skin on the head is ripped and it's missing a few parts and the stings. And I would like to know about this bruno company and other information on this instrument I'm very curious. I think it might be a hundred years old but I don't know.

?2014-09-02T13:20:21Z

Favorite Answer

Most guitar techs will work on banjos. You can find one through the internet, the yellow pages, or by asking at music stores. There are quite a few sources of banjo parts, but locating correct ones for an exact restoration can sometimes be a challenge. Check allparts.com, elderly.com (they have a good selection of heads IIRC), or stewmac.com.

C. Bruno & Sons is a very old New York distributor of instruments, both under their own name and those of the actual manufacturers. They currently belong to Kaman Corp.

Hybrid instruments like yours usually date to about the 1920's era. At this time the banjo was very popular and players of other stringed instruments often wanted to get a banjo sound without the bother of actually learning to play the banjo. This resulted in banjo-guitars, banjo-ukuleles, banjo-mandolins, and so forth.