Carnival
Plastic "Banjo"

Carnival was another US Plastic Instrument maker working around the 50' and 60's. They were contemporaries of Maccaferri and Fin-der; in fact they were the company that ended up buying out Maccaferri, but like Emenee, they were more famous as a toy manufacturer than a musical instrument maker. They did make regular Soprano Ukuleles, but the one I wanted, and have acquired is the round "Banjo" Mini. (The red ring around the body is suppose to make it look like a Banjo)

When I got it, it was missing 2 tuning pegs, (it did come with the original box though), so I got the more damaged Carnival Cowboy Mini just because it had all four pegs, (and was very cheep). This means I have six pegs in total so I can only string one of them at a time. Really though this doesn't matter, because now I have enough pegs to string one of them, and have done so, I have found they both sound pretty awful, have dreadful intonation and are very hard to play. If I had to choose, for all its damage the Cowboy sounds the better of the two but neither of them are worth the effort of trying to play so they can just be novelty objects. I've not had a go on the full size Soprano Hula or Varsity, but from the Carnivals I have played they fully live up to their reputation for only really being toys; all of the contemporary plastic brands of the time have been better, (even the made in Hong Kong T Plastics Beat Guitar). If I lost either of them I don't think I would bother with replacements, even for under a fiver.

I have seen them in red as well as white and both plain and decorated in these, and a lot of other patterns. They all appear to have originally come with red strings though so perhaps for authenticity I should get red strings for mine? (I have since found out that the red strings they came with was not proper strings but just a couple of bits of Nylon cord; so I won't bother).