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Thread: Savana Banjo Mandolin

  1. #1

    Default Savana Banjo Mandolin

    I have an old Savana Banjo Mandolin which is fairly well worn and I am pretty sure is in its original case. I do play it from time to time.
    I believe these instruments were made between 1920 and about 1940 by the Rose Bros in England.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Does anyone know more about these instruments, and also what sort of value it might be?

  2. #2
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Savana Banjo Mandolin

    Well, here's a lot of info on Rose, Morris & Co. and their Savana brand, which apparently was applied to everything from ukulele banjos to phongraphs. The excellent "British Banjo Makers" pages on whitetrees.com, which used to be a gold mine of info on UK builders, are apparently gone.

    What else to say about the instrument? It's a fairly common English style, with a bolt-on resonator, "top tension" head adjustment, and a smaller "pot" than many US mandolin banjos. You've got some significant cracking of the headstock, though apparently not enough to disable it structurally, and the mandolin banjo as a type, doesn't command high market prices now.

    If I were valuing it in the US, I'd feel happy to get $200 for it, with its worn but somewhat interesting soft-shell case. The mandolin banjo had a vogue between, say, WWI and 1930, and then its popularity waned, leaving thousands of instruments to languish in closets and the back rooms of pawnshops. I own a couple, don't play them all that much, but like having them for the occasional ragtime or jug band application. If you like playing it, I'd get that headstock looked at by a repair shop, before you get a worse split that would necessitate a more serious repair.
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  3. #3

    Default Re: Savana Banjo Mandolin

    Well, Well, Well, Rose Morris still going!!!
    Thanks for the link, and really useful information. I will get the tension off the strings and get the head fixed. I have been playing a bit of ragtime interestingly. It is fun to play now and again.
    Thanks a million.
    I wonder how I could fix the splits?
    Try and get some good wood glue into them, and clamp it well I suppose.
    Last edited by FrancisG; Feb-02-2017 at 12:00pm. Reason: adding info

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Savana Banjo Mandolin

    Are the splits in the entire headstock or is there a veneer? If it is just a veneer you won't be able to close it with clamps. I like to make plane shaving that fit snugly into the cracks then wick in HHG. Works well for lots of situations.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  5. #5

    Default Re: Savana Banjo Mandolin

    The Head is two layers which are 12mm thick altogether. The top layer is 4mm thick, it is this that is cracked. The main part of the head is not. This wood is the same as the finger board, possibly walnut??
    Your plan sounds like a good solution.
    Thanks, pops1

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