In France and England, the Banjoline was an open-backed instrument, and the mandoline-banjo was a closed back instrument (with a metallic back that made a "tinny" metallic sound. In his 1921 book Méthode for the Banjoline or Mandoline-Banjo, Salvador Leonardi said that naming conventions between the United States and France had applied similar names to different instruments. The closed back is a resonator, to project more sound outward. This is a Jazz-Age banjo, the American closed-back type that Leonardi referred to. The instrument adds the banjo's volume to the mandolin.ĭistinctions Banjolin versus banjo-mandolin īacon & Day ‘’Montana Silver Bell’’ mandolin-banjo at the American Banjo Museum. It enabled mandolinists to produce a banjo sound without having to learn that instrument's fingerings. The mandolin-banjo is one of the hybrids that resulted. In the heyday of mandolin orchestras and banjo bands (late 19th–early 20th century), all sorts of instruments were produced. The instrument was popularized prior to the 1920s, when the tenor banjo became more popular. The name banjolin was first patented by John Farris in 1885. The first patent for a mandolin-banjo was taken out in 1882 by Benjamin Bradbury of Brooklyn. Inventors were experimenting to create amplified instruments in the days before electric amplification.
2.2 French banjoline versus mandolin-banjo.