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Beautifully hand crafted 10 stringed cittern by Alan Mayers. This cittern was custom built in 2012 for Ryan O’Donnell and has been very well cared for over the past 5 years. If you are a bouzouki player you will take to this beautiful instrument very easily, it is currently tuned D A D G D.  I have gathered information from its previous owner that Alan built the instrument from the McIlroy Guitar works in Antrim where Alan worked for a number of years. The body back and sides are constructed from select Cherry  with mahogany binding surrounding the body and oval sound hole and the carved top is constructed from European spruce.

The 5 piece mahogany neck is sandwiched between two layers of ebony and the heal cap is also ebony. The headstock face plate is made from rosewood and the tuner machine heads are quality Gotoh gold plated with ruby buttons. The cittern is fitted with a Headway flat response built in pickup and comes with a DI box and 10ft stereo lead (Neutrik/Van Damme) cable ready set up for gigging, this has been tested and works perfectly. The cittern also comes complete with a custom fitted  Mike Mullan hard case. All inquiries are welcome, if you would like to try out this fine instrument send me an email to make arrangements. The instrument cost £1800 plus £280 for the pickup and £150 for the case which comes to a total of £2230. This cittern is for sale for less than half that price £1095 which is incredible value for a hand built instrument by Alan Meyers.

Build details

• Scale length 25-1/2″
• Nut width 42 mm
• String spacing at bridge 54 mm
• Body width 390 mm
• Overall length 1040 mm
• Body depth at back  98 mm sloping to 92 mm at heal
• Solid brass hand made tail piece
• Strings fitted are .056 | .042 | .030 | .018 |.013

Cittern is now Sold

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1928 Weymann Orchestra Style 4 tenor banjo made in Philadelphia, USA. A very classy banjo with neck, rim and resonator made from rosewood and gold plated metal parts throughout. I have spent a few months restoring this banjo to its former glory including having all metal parts triple gold plated.

Banjo details:

Its hard to believe these banjos had a price tag of $320 US dollars back in the twenties which is around 1/3 of a teachers salary in the late twenties. The Style 4 is exactly the same as the style 5 only difference is the style 5 has the extended fret board. The rosewood neck is reinforced with multi laminated different coloured woods to give it extra strength plus coloured veneers between the neck and fingerboard. The heel is capped with ebony and coloured veneers and is hand carved either side at the base of the neck. The ebony finger board is elaborately inlaid with the ‘tree of life’ vine mother of pearl the full length of the 19 frets. The edges are bound with ivory celluloid and position dots on the side. The head stock is capped with ebony and coloured veneers with fancy floral MOP bearing the brand name Weymann.

The megaphonic rim is also made from quality rosewood, with the upper edge inlaid with purfling and bound with ivory celluloid. The top of the rim is veneered with ebony and inlaid with pearl in the form of ornamental leaves. The notched tension hoop is hand engraved and plated in gold as is the 20 bracket hooks and nuts. The banjo is recently fitted with a new Remo 11″ clear head where you can clearly see the arch top tone ring.

The resonator is also made from solid rosewood with the upper and lower edges bound with ivory celluloid. the resonator top has a gold plated fitted flange cut in a floral design which sets this banjo of. The banjo looks stunning and sounds amazing with low playing action and comes with its original plush lined hard case in great condition. Recently spent over £400 on gold plating.

For Sale £2375

Summary:

• 19 fret, 23″ scale length
• 4-to-1 centred non slip geared tuners with pearlbuttons
• Rosewood megaphonic resonator
• Rose multi laminated neck
• Inlaid mother of pearl vine on top edge of rim;
• fancy vine pearl peghead and tree of life MOP fingerboard ;