Vega Tu-ba-phone Banjo
date: label: Date made
content: 1909-1925
label: date made
content: ca 1922
name: label: maker
content: Vega Company
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This banjo was made by the Vega Company in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1922. It is a Four-String Banjo, Tu-ba-phone Model No. 3, Serial #50232, with a patented brass top hoop and bracket band over a seven-lap sectional maple hoop, 28 brackets, mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard with22 frets and inlaid pearloid dots and star position marks, carved heel, peghead with flowerpot inlay, Grover style tuners with ivoroid buttons. The dowel stick is stamped:</p>
label: Description
content: <p>[Vega star]<br>FAIRBANKS BANJO<br>MADE BY<br>THE VEGA COMPANY<br>BOSTON, MASS.<br>[Vega star]<br>NO. 3<br>PAT.<br>Dec 30.1890<br>JAN 10.1893<br>JULY 27.1909</p>
label: Description
content: <p>(and):</p>
label: Description
content: <p>TU-BA-PHONE</p>
label: Description
content: <p>This banjo features the following patents:</p>
label: Description
content: <p>U. S. Patent #443510 dated December 30, 1890, by Albert C. Fairbanks, for new and useful improvements in banjos.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>U. S. Patent #489470 dated January 10, 1893, by Albert C. Fairbanks, for new and useful improvements in banjos.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>U. S. Patent #928948 dated July 27, 1909, by David L. Day, assignor to the Vega Company, for an improved means for stretching and retaining the head of a banjo.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>The Vega Company purchased the A. C. Fairbanks Company in 1904 and produced banjos of high quality largely based on earlier designs of Fairbanks. This Tu-ba-phone model incorporated a heavy “tone ring” originally patented by Fairbanks in 1890, a feature still favored by modern banjo players for the quality of tone it produces.</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Banjos
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Adam Gallan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0055.01
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0055.01
label: accession number
content: 1987.0055
objectType: label: Object Name
content: banjo
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: maple (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ebony (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mahogany (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: animal skin (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 37 1/2 in x 11 1/2 in x 2 1/2 in; 95.25 cm x 29.21 cm x 6.35 cm