TownAndrews - Posted - 07/03/2025:  15:40:24

I always wanted a Plectrum. But with its 27" scale, this one is too long for me.

It's a beautiful resonator banjo, and I think based on a Mastertone pot and tone ring.

I've always been more a player and mechanical dabbler than deep into the lore and collecting aspects. I acquired this Plectrum as a project, but it has its mysteries.

As a project, it was so close to complete, I had to wonder how many decades it sat, well stored, but unfinished. All I had to do was A) get and fit a resonator and B) swap out two black-buttoned friction (yes, friction) pegs so that it now has four matched '30s white-button 4/1 banjo tuners. Only two brackets on the pot don't match the rest. And since it was barely uncompleted, it seems pretty old, but virtually unplayed.

Would you describe the general category as a parts banjo, a custom banjo, or I guess it may even be a conversion...?

And the big mysteries: Has anybody ever heard of a luthier or banjo maker named Yonan? That's what the inlay by the ultimate fret (22/23) reads. Was there a maker in the 30s to 50s named Yonan?

And was there a known, or obscure, Plectrum player back in those days whose initials were K.C.?The inlay work on this thing is beautiful, from the KC on the peghead, to the red resin fretboard inlay, even the beautiful MOTS pearloid that caps the back of the pot, hidden under the resonator.

I've always enjoyed and appreciated this site's collaboration and brother/sisterhood of the banjo, and happy to have y'all to ask about this one.

Andy

Yonan Boat Heel

Yonan Plectrum

Yonan KC peghead

 

Bill Rogers - Posted - 07/03/2025:  15:52:13

Another possibility—KC stands for Kansas City. So there’s some more fodder for speculation.

TownAndrews - Posted - 07/03/2025:  16:09:52

Good thought Bill...I think there was a Kansas City brand for banjos back in the day. Whether they used initials for a logo, or had a Yonan....sleuthing.

tdennis - Posted - 07/03/2025:  23:22:32

(You always wanted a Plectrum?) The Plectrum banjo scale is typically 27" +-. You have a fabulous & unique instrument, & it would be well worth trying to adapt to it.

Edited by - tdennis on 07/03/2025 23:24:01

TownAndrews - Posted - 07/04/2025:  07:11:20

@tdennis I have had that same thought numerous times but each time I try it, it's just too uncomfortable at 27" -- and then there's the 10 lbs it weighs. I agree! and I've tried...

My 50 years of playing have been on 5-strings, with ~26" scale lengths, and that extra inch matters. (my current daily player is a Sonntag UnXld, 25 1/4" scale (Buckbee), and even with its 38 brackets, a trim 5-pounder)

I also agree this KC Yonan is a fabulous and unique instrument, and needs to be loved as such--by a plectrum player who thrives with a 27 incher.

Bob Smakula - Posted - 07/04/2025:  07:19:15

My suspicion is the rim is was Japanese made in the mid 1970's, or at least the parts are from that era. More pics of the rim and it's hardware will be helpful.

If you have a way to check that the threading of the hooks & nuts and coordinator rods is metric, rather than SAE, that would confirm the Japanese made hardware.



The heel of the neck is a shape I have seen on banjos made in the US in the 1960's and 1970's.



Bob Smakula

smakulafrettedinstruments.com

 

TownAndrews - Posted - 07/04/2025:  14:10:24

Bob Smakula Those are great suggestions I'll see if I can get a reading on metric vs. sae.

Meantime, I'll see if I can add photos...

Tonering has 20 holes

TownAndrews - Posted - 07/04/2025:  14:17:30

Photos (3)

Yonan Side

Yonan Tonering

Yonan KC pot

 

mikehalloran - Posted - 07/06/2025:  10:09:45

quote:

---

Originally posted by TownAndrews

I always wanted a Plectrum. But with its 27" scale, this one is too long for me.



...



Andy

---

Vega Professional scale is 27". Gibson is 26 1/4". Sounds like quite a difference, right?  The longest 5-fret stretch is 3/16" longer on the Vega scale—but that is from the nut. Nobody frets behind the nut and any higher on the neck, the difference is less.

TownAndrews - Posted - 07/10/2025:  12:22:13

Bob Smakula your hunches check out, and I appreciate the leads...

The Yonan "KC" Plectrum, 27" scale, 10lbs with resonator, does have metric hardware.

Hooks and nuts are a metric 4mm, and the coordinator rod takes a M8 x 1.25 nut.

I did load 3 more pics of the (resonator off) inside and back of the instrument. (Above/below, have a look?). Altogether, an instrument carefully and precisely built, wherever it's from.

So I'm thinking it's a custom banjo, made with Japanese metric parts, with the boatiest boat heel, likely made in USA, and that there's a story, perhaps forgotten, about this being made for somebody somewhere in the heartland, and abandoned nearly finished.

Well I finished it, and now, I'm tempted to keep it and play it but I keep waffling on that, because it's so dang heavy, and long...

(And it has a top-frosted head. Makes a lot of finger noise when I play it. If I keep it i need to change it to a quieter head)

Also, I searched "Yonan" and "Japan", thinking, hey maybe that's a Japanese name, but no...Google seems to think it's more likely Assyrian. And frankly I doubt that it has any connection or influence thereabouts -- other than general melting-pot American origin.

If I sell it, what's a fair price?

Bob Smakula - Posted - 07/10/2025:  18:09:09

I think it is a home made USA neck on a used Japanese rim.

That heel is not what is traditionally call a "boat heel" in the banjo collector circles. I don't see a boat part. Not sure what we would actually call it

Bob Smakula