Weymann Style 50 Conversion
Weyman was one of the two great Philadelphia makers (the other was S.S. Stewart). Weymann was reportedly in business since 1864 until WWII. However, nearly all the Weyman banjos that I have ever seen are from the "tenor era", namely between WWI and WWII. Five-strings are known but uncommon.
I can't find much information about the array of Weymann style designations. I am calling this a Style 50 because of the "50" stamped in the margin of the peghead after the serial number. Also, Style 50 5-strings are pictured in Gruhn's web gallery HERE, and at Sylvan Music HERE. The fine folks at Retrofret have a Style 70 for sale HERE. They say:
This Weymann Style 70 is rather an obscure banjo, one of the "integral rim/resonator" models that made up the company's lower priced but still professional-grade line. Weymann's original Megaphonic Orchestra model banjos are some of the most beautiful and elegant tenor and plectrum instruments ever created; the company's challenge was how to keep some of the same qualities in a lower priced instrument. Their solution was to use a molded rim - made of compressed wood fibers - mounted directly to the resonator which is laminated wood. Much of the hardware is the same as on the higher-priced Weymann models, and the overall appearance is similar but these instruments were sold at considerably lower prices. The Style 70 almost certainly sold originally for $70.00, exactly half the price of a Megaphonic Style A (the lowest grade in the Orchestra line) and was priced between the even simpler Style 50 and very similar Style 85, which may have quickly replaced it in the line.
Anyway, this instrument started life as a mandolin banjo in 1931 bearing the serial number 46228. It featured Weymann's "megaphonic" rim, a compound rim and resonator configuration with the j-hooks running through the rim and out the bottom of resonator. I bought this example on eBay from a gentleman in Red Lion, PA, mainly because I wanted to see how it was built. I find mandolin banjos to be untuneable little bastard beasts so I built a 5-string neck for it. I left the rim and mando neck unmodified in the unlikely event that someone would want to return it to the original mandolin banjo configuration.
There you are. Nothing extraordinary technique-wise but some interesting design features, eh?