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Banjo

Vega Tenor Banjo

Name: Vega Tenor Banjo
Brand: Vega

Vega · Tenor Banjo

Price: 3 EUR – 2.789 EUR

Price history

Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

Availability: 8/10 (Common)

A four-string tenor banjo from the company that dominated early 20th-century American banjo building, built in the era of Vega's Tubaphone and Whyte Laydie tone-ring innovations that set the standard for the whole industry.

Where available? Go to the best price – 3 EUR About this instrument

About the Vega Tenor Banjo

Vega's early tenor banjos came out of the same production lines that produced its most influential designs: the Whyte Laydie (introduced with a scalloped tone ring redesign in 1908) and the Tubaphone, introduced in 1909 with a perforated, ring-shaped metal tone ring seated between the wooden rim and the head - a design that dramatically increased volume and became one of the most copied tone-ring concepts in banjo history. Tenor banjos, tuned in fifths like a mandolin or viola rather than the five-string's open-G-style tuning, were built to cut through the dance-band and jazz ensembles popular through the 1920s.

Rim sizes on Vega's tenor banjos of this era typically ran 10 3/4 inches, with 12-inch professional sizes available on order for players wanting more volume. From 1922-23 onward, short 20 3/4-inch-scale, 17-fret tenors were phased out in favor of the longer 23-inch-scale, 19-fret configuration that became the era's new standard.

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Reverb Martin V720 Vega Steel/Nickel Banjo Strings - .009-.030 Tenor 4-String 3 EUR Best price View details
Reverb Martin V720 Vega Tenor Banjo Strings Nickel 9-30 5 EUR View details
Reverb Martin & Co. V720 Vega Banjo Strings Tenor Nickel Wound 6 EUR View details
Reverb C.F. Martin & Co. V720 Vega Banjo Strings Tenor Nickel Wound 6 EUR View details
Reverb Martin V720 Vega Tenor 4 String Banjo Strings. 9-30 39 EUR View details
Reverb vega tenor banjo 24 lug 10" 371 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Tenor Banjo 1960s Circa. Sunburst. 414 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Tenor Banjo - 1960's Vintage 660 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Vegaphone Professional Tenor Banjo 1924 w/ Original Case 1.116 EUR View details
eBay Sehr gut erhaltenes Vega Tubaphone Tenor Banjo aus dem Jahr 1923 1.490 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Professional Tenor Banjo 1.678 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Vegaphone Professional Tenor Banjo 1.734 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Soloist Tenor Banjo 1926 1 of 2 1.802 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Soloist Tenor Banjo 1926 2 of 2 1.864 EUR View details
Reverb Vega Deluxe Vegaphone Tenor Plectrum Banjo 2.789 EUR View details

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Source: https://reverb.com/item/100131700-vega-tenor-banjo-1960-s-vintage

Sound character of the Vega Tenor Banjo

As a 4-string tenor tuned in fifths rather than the 5-string open-G tunings of bluegrass banjos, this Vega was built for early jazz and dance-band rhythm playing, where a bright, percussive attack needed to cut through a horn section without amplification. Its shorter scale and simpler chord shapes trade sustain for a quick, snappy pluck.

Bright Percussive Crisp

Technical data for the Vega Tenor Banjo

Type	4-string tenor
Tuning	Fifths (like mandolin/viola)
Rim size	10 3/4" (12" available)
Scale length (later)	23" (19 frets)
Origin	Vega, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Price history for the Vega Tenor Banjo

Cheapest seen: 3 EUR · Most expensive seen: 2.789 EUR

Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

The history of the Vega Tenor Banjo

Vega acquired the remains of the fire-damaged A.C. Fairbanks banjo company in 1904 and built on Fairbanks' banjo-making legacy to become the dominant American banjo maker of the 1900s-1920s; its Tubaphone and Whyte Laydie tone-ring designs remain reference points that contemporary banjo builders still study and reproduce.