[cowmoo]

I was given this a few years ago when my dad brought it to me from his sisters house, apparently she got either from her dad, or an uncle when she was 8 or 9, she's now 85 and she remembers it being played when she was a child.
It's got 6 tuners, 1 halfway up the neck like a G banjo, but only 5 holes for the strings at the drum.
Apart from the bridge and a nut i put for the short string to run around, it's all original.
Any ideas? my google searches don't bring up anything identical but I believe it is a zither banjo, and they were pretty common around 100 yr ago.

[fletch]

That's one for the museum, mate!
I love old banjos, but I've never seen a seven string model before!
I reckon the tailpiece was probably replaced at some stage and they couldn't find one to match the seven-string combination. I'd say any replacement bridge would have had to be handmade, too.

I'm really interested in what you find out about this beautiful old instrument, so keep us informed, eh?

[Drewgrass]

If you've been searching for 7 string zither banjo's you will have noticed that the 7th string usually runs through a tube under the fretboard from the 5th fret and is tuned at the headstock.
Your banjo has the tuner at the 6th fret which sudgests to me this is a 7 string not a zither banjo.

Looking at the body, it doesn't look like it's been altered and the anchors for 5 strings could mean that the neck is not original to the body.

Difficult to find a specific maker, (there were a lot of makers) as there are no real distinguishing features except maybe the 7th string being at the 6th fret and not the 5th which seems to be the usual place.

They sell anywhere from £50 up.

LINK to some other examples for sale in the UK.

[cowmoo]

Fletch, i think we have some clues right here !
Thanks Drewgrass, it looks a lot like that Morley example bar the slotted peghead.
I was told that some makers simply made 6 string headstocks because they could only get 3 a side tuners!
I now know why my attempts to play it are such a disaster, that peg at the 6th and the fact the markers seem random don't help my logic!

[Drewgrass]

The whole thing messes with my head but that's part of it's appeal.

Nice piece of family history even if it's not the best player.
I'd have it hanging on my wall like a family photograph.