Gibson MB-4 (1924)

Gibson MB-4 (1924)

MF3890 Gibson MB-4 mandolin-banjo, 1924, EXF, 9" head diameter, trap door resonator, silver plated metal hardware, pearl tuner buttons, Cremona brown sunburst finish, OHC......$1000

The hayday of the mandolin in the United States began in the 1880s and continued until the First World War. After that war, the banjo returned to popularity and became the most popular fretted instrument of the 1920s. This change in fashion left a lot of mandolin players out of a job, and looking for a way to conform to the new trend. Instrument makers offered two solutions: 1) the tenor banjo, and 2) the mandolin banjo. Both of these instruments are tuned like a mandolin (G-D-A-E) and can be played as a mandolin. It was the tenor banjo which became the popular instrument of ragtime jazz in the 1920s, but this instrument has a longer scale than the mandolin, and was not as easy to play for those mandolinists with smaller hands.

Virtually all mandolin (and, to a lesser extent, tenor) banjos were made before 1930. Why?

1. The Great Depression virtually halted all instrument production from 1930-1933 (Gibson converted to production of wooden toys in this period, Martin tried selling jewelry made of exotic woods.)
2. After 1933, the guitar overcame the banjo in popularity, and destroyed the market for banjos in general. This may have been due in part to the general introduction of the electric guitar around 1933/34. When the banjo returned to popularity in the 1950s, it was the 5-string banjo that won favor, not the tenor banjo of the 1920s.

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