Schoenhut Liberty Bell

I said I'd brought enough Clunkers! I even wrote it in the Coming Soon Section section and here I am looking forward to a widely experienced Schoenhut Liberty Bell Mini Banjolele One that I know needs work too! Yet again the tuners need sorting out, its going to need a bridge too and I don't know what else because it was being sold as a toy not a musical instrument...

and that is partly the reason. I put the caveat in "unless it was a bargain" and this one was No one else wanted a broken toy Banjo much and because it is so small the shipping is cheap too, (its another find from the good old US of A), and it is even cheap enough that eBay tell me there is no tax to pay! Liberty indeed.

Now its here and I really should have kept that promise!

It arrived in two parts, the neck separated from the body! (hence the cheap shipping), and the skin is a lot slacker than the picture suggests too. Yes its repairable but its going to be a lot more work than I was anticipating. On the plus side The neck is is good order and the Schoenhut Liberty Bell decal is in perfect order. Plus it will take a set of modern tuners without having to ream out the holes, (much). I think it will be good one day, (especially if I can get someone competent to fix it), just not today.

Well the skin was beyond reuse so I had to buy a new one, (makes it a bit less of a bargain especially as I had to buy tuners too - but they are very colourful - and strings; pretty much doubled the price), but it is fixed up now thanks to some help from the Ukulele Doctor and it does look sweet. It doesn't sound great but its better than the Carnivals and its tone improves with a high tuning. It does have a very low action too so trying to fingerpick on it is pretty difficult.