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mrmando - Posted - 06/15/2024: 22:26:25
Check out this very weird Stelling Whitestar:
shopgoodwill.com/item/201696650
It is configured as a lefty, with the 5th string on the other side of the fretboard from where you'd usually expect to see it. But it sure looks like it wasn't originally built as a lefty. Placement of the inlays suggests that someone carved away part of an existing neck and fretboard, then made a new nut and installed the 5th string hardware.
Could this have originally been a tenor banjo that was vivisected rather than being renecked? Was the Stelling Whitestar offered as a tenor?
Aradobanjo - Posted - 06/16/2024: 04:16:07
Hello,
Given the scale length, the model would be as plectrum banjo. This made it possible to hog out a “5th” string path and keep a facsimile of a 5 string banjo. Intonation would be terrible. The string loads at the tailpiece are expecting symmetry between the 3rd and 2nd string. Now, the 3rd string is supposed to be the centerline.
New neck. Isn’t English Walnut this clean tough to source.
Fathand - Posted - 06/16/2024: 06:05:54
Whitestars were usually maple, which this appears to be. Looks like someone maybe grafted a Stelling headstock on a replacement neck that was not done so well?
If it were mine, I'd make a new neck from scratch, using the old one as a template.
sunburst - Posted - 06/16/2024: 06:49:42
Not sure just what went on there. Obviously not originally in that condition. Looks like wood was added to one side and removed from the other to change a righty to a lefty. Neck is ruined, IMO.
Good chance to get a Stelling pot to pair with a good neck.
jeffinvt - Posted - 06/16/2024: 18:33:33
That pot went for under $800. I wish I'd been paying more attention
'I'm Liberated!' 2 hrs
'Mahog bow tie.' 14 hrs
