The Early Gourd Banjo

Banjos were originally made with gourd bodies. Scholars tell us that they originated in the area of the Caribbean during the colonial period. It combines elements of African instruments, such as the akonting, and Western instruments, such as the mandolin and violin.

The African ancestor was apparently made from a gourd or the shell of a fruit, with a skin head, and a round pole for a neck. The strings were attached to the neck by wrapping it around, and tightened around the neck to tune it. The early banjo, however has a flat neck with strings attached by using tuning pegs, as on Western instruments.

It spread to the places where the black people were sold as slaves, including the Thirteen American Colonies, where it was known by the name banjo by the mid 1700's, as attested in writings of the time. Banja, banjer, and banjar, were among the other spellings in use.

They were not a standardized instrument, and so a variety of materials and string numbers could have been used. Reports from the 19th Century has them made from wooden cheese boxes, for example.

In the mid 1800's, they began to be manufactured by instrument companies, and standardized as 5-string instruments with wooden hoops for bodies, similar to a tambourine or drum. The short thumb string was not a new innovation, but was on many banjos, going back to the ancestral instruments in Africa.

This gourd banjo is made by John Salicco at http://www.banjofactory.com