I picked up this banjo on eBay for about $60 a couple of years ago via British
Columbia. I got it mainly because it appeared to be fairly complete except
for the fingerboard and I was interested to see how these zither-banjos are
built. For some good background on zither-banjos, players, and musical
literature, visit http://www.zither-banjo.org/pages/home.htm.
There is lots of good stuff there including information on Cammeyer himself.
On the opposite side of the heel is stamped "GRADE 2" The heel
cap features a stamped facsimile of Cammeyer's signature. On the reverse of
the headstock is stamped the serial number "4468". I understand
that Cammeyer's records still exist but I was not able to access them to find
a date of manufacture. If anyone can help, I would like to hear from you.
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Here is the banjo as I received it. You can see that
the fingerboard is missing and only a tatter of the head remains, but otherwise
it is complete. |
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Viewing the reverse side, we see that the back has been stripped of the
original finish and given a clear topcoat, probably shellac, which has darkened
quite a bit over time. |
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It has, as is common on zither-banjos, geared tuners one might find on
a classical guitar. A highly notable feature is the "hollow arm"
neck: The fifth string runs through a brass tube located under the
fingerboard and emerges between the 4th and 5th frets. There was a
large chip of wood missing from the headstock above the 1st string tuner.
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 Here
to the left is the rear of the headstock with the stamped serial number.
Note the 5th string guide tube at the bottom of the right slot. The tuners
are a bit rusty and tarnished but quite handsomely stamped in a leafy pattern. |
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Also very distinctive of the zither banjo is the construction of the rim.
The head is not mounted directly on the rim but is suspended inside the
rim by brackets. The rim, as I am calling it here, acts like a resonator
and does not support any of the head tension. Here you can also see
some of the crumbling veneer and missing segments of the rim cap. |
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Here's a closer view of the rear. It has been refinished and there
is some marginal chipping. The rear is a carved, one-piece plate of
wood. |
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Finally, Cammeyer's stamp on the neck at the heel. |
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Upon disassembly, I found that the body was out of round and some of the
glue joints were loose, so I took the body apart and reglued all the joints.
There was some interesting numbering on the neck-side rim doubler.
I don't know what they mean. The rim itself is upside-down in the
photo. |
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The skin head is mounted on three hoops, shown here already cleaned and
polished. There is a heavy, cast and machined bezel upon which the
heads sits directly. In the middle is a thick, round brass flesh hoop.
On top is a cast and machined brass tension hoop. |
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 Here's
the bezel by itself. The lugs in the bezel are threaded.
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 Here
is the tension hoop by itself.
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Three dots are stamped into both hoops to insure correct alignment. |
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Head tension is maintained by 18 stout brass bolts. |
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I mounted a new skin in the usual way. Here are the hoops all bolted
up, top and bottom views, and ready to put aside until the body is ready. |
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 While
getting the neck ready, I observed that the dowel stick was crooked, so
I steamed it out in the usual way. This revealed an interesting construction
technique - the dowel tenon was slotted and a small wedge of soft wood was
inserted. The wedge is intended to hit the bottom of the hole when
the dowel is pushed in, expanding the tenon and making a better glue joint.
I am told that this is an old furniture makers' technique, called a "fox
joint". |
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As I mentioned earlier, the veneer was loose and crumbling to dust in
a number of places. I don't know what the veneer was made of but possibly
rosewood. I replaced it as needed with thin ebony veneer. The
rim cap, made of a fine-grained, "ebonized" but unidentified wood,
was missing in a few places, so I replaced the missing bits with ebony,
too. I finished the whole body in black lacquer with two topcoats
of clear lacquer. Here's the finished body with the handsome tailpiece
bracket installed. The screw runs through the body and into the dowel
stick. |
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 Here's
another interesting feature of the Camm. There is a small adjuster
mounted on the neck and tailpiece sides of the body. The central part
can be turned with a sharp rod to rest against the main bezel. I think
they are meant to improve tone by making a more solid connection between
the neck, body, bezel, and tailpiece. I assume they could also be
used to slightly change the action, much like the lower coordinator rod
in a modern banjo. |
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 The
head assembly is secured to the body by 6 brackets. Here you see how
they are screwed into place on the head assembly. The whole assembly
with brackets weights a hefty 3 pounds, 5 ounces. |
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Here's the body with the head assembly installed using the 6 brackets.
Sitting on the head are some of the 10 other brackets. They are screwed
into the top margin of the body but are not attached to the head assembly.
They are essentially ornamental. |
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Here is the body-head assembly with the 10 ornamental brackets installed
and all ready to go. |
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 Here
are some crude mechanical drawings that I made of the cross-section of the
body structure. On the left, I attempt to show the section at the
head assembly lugs. On the right is the section between lugs showing
how the head assembly is suspended from the body. |
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Here is the headstock after I filled in the missing chunk of wood with
a scrap of ebony left from the fingerboard blank. Its hard to see here
but the 5th string runs into the guide tube from the 6th tuner (lower left
in the enlarged image). The tuner on the upper right (enlarged image)
is unused. |
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The tuners cleaned up very nicely. Here you can see the handsome
ornamental stamping a bit better. |
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Ebony fingerboard replacement with minimalist inlay. I was unable
to find out the original inlay pattern. |
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Here is a close-up of the small bone pip I installed at the fifth fret.
Some zither-banjos have them to the right of the fret, others to the left.
I put this one coincident with the fret. Note how the 5th string emerges
from the guide tube under the fingerboard. |
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Here is am image of the stamped Cammeyer signature in the heel cap.
This image is heavily "doctored" by merging two shots from slightly
different angles and enhancing the lettering. In the actual heel cap,
a sizeable shrinkage crack has obscured the "mmey" quite a bit. |
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Finally, the overall shots. It is strung at this time with light
steel strings at the first, second, and fifth positions. The third
and fourth strings are nylon. This is the more-or-less standard stringing
for "classical" style playing. The bridge is an inexpensive
no-name from my parts bin. Some of the few zither banjos I've seen
have a Grover "No Tip" bridge mounted but I find their string
spacing too narrow for my taste. |
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In conclusion, this was quite an educational project, delving into
the unfamiliar realm of zither-banjos and classical style banjo literature.
I think the 5th string configuration is a great idea that has been unfairly
passed over. It produces a nice wide fingerboard and the 5th-string
tuner doesn't get in the way. So far, I have had no problems with
tuning the 5th string or string vibrations in the guide tube.
I am far from any kind of expert on zither-banjos, and all errors of
fact here are mine alone. Sincere thanks to David Wade and Chris
Egerton, both of the United Kingdom, for their helpful information.
Please send any comments or corrections to me by
email. |
Alfred
Davies Cammeyer was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1862. He was musically
talented and by his early twenties was a banjoist of some note. He was
invited to England and moved there in 1888. He became a very popular performer
and composer. In 1892, he and Clifford Essex formed the firm of Essex
& Cammeyer, manufacturing banjos and publishing music but the partnership
was dissolved in 1900. Cammeyer continued to write, perform, publish,
and make banjos until his retirement in 1939. From 1900 on, his studios
and manufacturing facility was located at 3 Swallow Street, London W (in Piccadilly).
This banjo was probably made there.
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