Stanley Hicks Mountain Banjo 5 String Fretless Banjo , c. 1980s
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Item # 13423
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Stanley Hicks Mountain Banjo Model 5 String Fretless Banjo, c. 1980s, made in Watauga County, North Carolina, natural finish, mahogany neck, mahogany body with cherry sides and skin head.
Watauga County, North Carolina was home to many of the torchbearers of American traditional music and Appalachian storytelling, but Stanley Hicks in particular was a master of many crafts including storytelling, flatfooting, and of course instrument making. From humble beginnings as the child of English immigrants, Hicks taught himself how to build banjos and dulcimers like his father and grandfather before him. Several of his siblings were musicians as well, including his brother and fellow luthier Floyd Hicks who once owned this banjo. Like other resourceful mountain instrument builders, Hicks made use of the easily attainable tone woods on his property and likely used the skin of whatever critter was handy that week.
The simple but ingenious design of these banjos is far closer to original African-style instruments built in the southern States by enslaved African-Americans than it is to the intricately factory engraved, complex and pearlescent offerings of companies like Gibson and Bacon & Day which were usually financially unattainable to blue-collar pickers of rural Appalachia. It features what appears to be a mahogany one-piece bolt-on neck with a small and slightly rounded D-shaped profile; mahogany was not super commonly found in the area, so Hicks must have pulled from a special stash here. The top and back of the body are the same with a genuine skin head; the ring of wood sandwiched between the top and back is distinctly cherry, a more common find. It is a fretless banjo, more commonly found than a fretted one, and all five strings are rooted in place by hand-carved friction tuners.
Hicks was a vital part of the region's folk music community writ large and an avid storyteller, a tradition that holds a lot of weight in Appalachia and earned him several regional and national accolades. He went on to be recorded by the likes of Alan Lomax and was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in 1983, the highest national honor for folk art. He passed away in 1989 only a few years after the construction of this banjo, building instruments and making music until the end of his life. Today his instruments are considered among the higher quality examples of the mountain banjo tradition, and among the most sought after of this banjo family.
Overall length is 36 1/2 in. (92.7 cm.), 10 in. (25.4 cm.) width, and 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Width of nut is 1 1/4 in. (32 mm.).
This mountain banjo was purchased from Hicks himself in 1983 only a few short years before he passed away after a long and storied life of Appalachian lutherie. It remains a well-preserved example of a fairly simple banjo, but a few flourishes set this one apart as a product of a whole lifetime of practice. The headstock is more intricately carved and the pegs are more refined; the little circular etchings around the rim are in place as they are on many Hicks instruments. There is very little wear on the banjo itself but for some scratches and scuffs here and there; a small tear in the original skin head has been patched, with some glue reinforcement to stretch marks along its front edge. This head is solid and functional, but if it fails in the future fortunately Hicks used flathead screws rather than inlaid wooden pegs to hold the banjo together. This makes changing the skin considerably easier than many other mountain banjos. There do not appear to be any cracks or other repairs of note on this instrument.
The banjo plays well to the standards of these instruments; the nut is cut unevenly but that is how Hicks made it. In general he is still regarded as one of the higher quality builders of his day. With steel strings and hand-made friction pegs this banjo is not the easiest to tune, but rewards the effort with a beautiful and uniquely evocative sound. There is no label or name etching on this instrument as is typical for other Hicks instruments, but it was purchased from an elderly Hicks himself and bears some of his characteristic aesthetic details such as the fine etching left behind as he placed holes for the flathead screws. It is strung with ballend strings but the small metal rod used to secure loop-end strings to the tailpiece is included. This banjo does not come with a bag or case; it would not have left Stanley's shop with one. Overall Very Good + Condition.
Watauga County, North Carolina was home to many of the torchbearers of American traditional music and Appalachian storytelling, but Stanley Hicks in particular was a master of many crafts including storytelling, flatfooting, and of course instrument making. From humble beginnings as the child of English immigrants, Hicks taught himself how to build banjos and dulcimers like his father and grandfather before him. Several of his siblings were musicians as well, including his brother and fellow luthier Floyd Hicks who once owned this banjo. Like other resourceful mountain instrument builders, Hicks made use of the easily attainable tone woods on his property and likely used the skin of whatever critter was handy that week.
The simple but ingenious design of these banjos is far closer to original African-style instruments built in the southern States by enslaved African-Americans than it is to the intricately factory engraved, complex and pearlescent offerings of companies like Gibson and Bacon & Day which were usually financially unattainable to blue-collar pickers of rural Appalachia. It features what appears to be a mahogany one-piece bolt-on neck with a small and slightly rounded D-shaped profile; mahogany was not super commonly found in the area, so Hicks must have pulled from a special stash here. The top and back of the body are the same with a genuine skin head; the ring of wood sandwiched between the top and back is distinctly cherry, a more common find. It is a fretless banjo, more commonly found than a fretted one, and all five strings are rooted in place by hand-carved friction tuners.
Hicks was a vital part of the region's folk music community writ large and an avid storyteller, a tradition that holds a lot of weight in Appalachia and earned him several regional and national accolades. He went on to be recorded by the likes of Alan Lomax and was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in 1983, the highest national honor for folk art. He passed away in 1989 only a few years after the construction of this banjo, building instruments and making music until the end of his life. Today his instruments are considered among the higher quality examples of the mountain banjo tradition, and among the most sought after of this banjo family.
Overall length is 36 1/2 in. (92.7 cm.), 10 in. (25.4 cm.) width, and 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Width of nut is 1 1/4 in. (32 mm.).
This mountain banjo was purchased from Hicks himself in 1983 only a few short years before he passed away after a long and storied life of Appalachian lutherie. It remains a well-preserved example of a fairly simple banjo, but a few flourishes set this one apart as a product of a whole lifetime of practice. The headstock is more intricately carved and the pegs are more refined; the little circular etchings around the rim are in place as they are on many Hicks instruments. There is very little wear on the banjo itself but for some scratches and scuffs here and there; a small tear in the original skin head has been patched, with some glue reinforcement to stretch marks along its front edge. This head is solid and functional, but if it fails in the future fortunately Hicks used flathead screws rather than inlaid wooden pegs to hold the banjo together. This makes changing the skin considerably easier than many other mountain banjos. There do not appear to be any cracks or other repairs of note on this instrument.
The banjo plays well to the standards of these instruments; the nut is cut unevenly but that is how Hicks made it. In general he is still regarded as one of the higher quality builders of his day. With steel strings and hand-made friction pegs this banjo is not the easiest to tune, but rewards the effort with a beautiful and uniquely evocative sound. There is no label or name etching on this instrument as is typical for other Hicks instruments, but it was purchased from an elderly Hicks himself and bears some of his characteristic aesthetic details such as the fine etching left behind as he placed holes for the flathead screws. It is strung with ballend strings but the small metal rod used to secure loop-end strings to the tailpiece is included. This banjo does not come with a bag or case; it would not have left Stanley's shop with one. Overall Very Good + Condition.