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John Croft, Glan Tanat, Llanyblodwel, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY10 8NQ, England. Tel: (44) 01691 - 828850.
E-Mail: theukuleleman@hotmail.com
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One of the most remarkable things about Ludwig banjo ukes is that they were manufactured for barely four years from their arrival in 1927 to their demise (and indeed the demise of the entire company) in 1930. Even within that amazingly short time, no one model was manufactured for the entire period of production, and it is doubtful whether any model was produced for more than two years at the most. Catalogue evidence would suggest not. So let’s start the story in 1927.
Initially there were three Ludwig banjo uke models produced, which in ascending order of price were; the Wendell Hall model, the nickel plated Ludwig banjo uke, and the gold plated (and beautifully engraved) Ludwig banjo uke. The Wendell Hall model was Ludwig’s cheapest banjo uke, retailing at $25 dollars with standard black friction pegs, or $31.50 if fitted with ‘Planet’ 4 to 1 geared pegs. It was constructed with a two piece American Walnut neck, and a laminated American Walnut resonator with a plain back, a transfer motif around the side, and a band of white/cream binding around its bottom edge (sometimes seen with black binding). The peghead had ‘Wendell Hall Professional’ written on it in gold coloured letters with a small gold scroll motif above and below. The fingerboard was ebonised (stained black to look like ebony) with sixteen frets and pearl position dots at the 5th, 7th, 10th, & 12th frets. There was a thin piece of black ebonised wood on the base of the heel. The neck also had a square section perch-pole attached to it which passed through a hole in the side of the resonator and extended across to the opposite resonator wall where it was held in position by a long self tapping screw. A sturdy metal bracket placed onto the perch pole securely clamped the neck onto the resonator. This system of attachment was identical in all Ludwig banjo ukes.
All Ludwig top-tension banjos and banjo ukes had an integral flange and hoop made not from a casting or a spinning but from a single pressing of heavy gauge metal (precisely what kind of metal is debatable). This rested in a small recess in the resonator so that the top of the flange was flush with the top rim of the resonator. The whole assembly was secured onto the resonator by four small but chunky self tapping screws through recessed holes in the flange. These screws extended vertically downwards into the thickened sidewall of the resonator. The flange on the Wendell Hall model contained fifteen ‘slot’ shaped cut-outs. The bezel was plain but strong, and wide enough to allow the shafts of the sixteen threaded top-tension bolts to pass through it and screw directly into the inside edge of the flange close to the ‘pot’. The diameter across the ‘pot’ was seven and a half inches (half an inch smaller than the eight inches normally used by most quality banjo uke manufacturers) and the diameter of the flange about nine and seven eighths of an inch. These dimensions were the same on all Ludwig banjo ukes. The tailpiece screwed onto the bezel as did the detachable armrest. The bezel rested on a square section brass flesh hoop which tensioned the vellum over the top of the pot. All the metalwork was heavily nickel plated. Externally there was nothing on the Wendell Hall to identify the instrument as having been made by Ludwig, so the company glued an oval shaped label onto the (inside) base of the resonator to clearly advertise themselves as the manufacturer.
Whilst ‘Planet’ geared pegs are fabulous to use even after over seventy years of use, I have to say that the original friction pegs used on the Wendell Hall were of a brilliantly simple but effective design. To attach a string you simply ran it through the hole in the lower section of the top of the peg’s shank, and screwed down the top part of this shank using its gnurled edge to grip it easily. Extremely simple but extremely effective.
Incidentally, it is worth mentioning here that the Ludwig company was unique amongst all of the American banjo manufacturers in that it made every component of its instruments itself - including the bridge, the pegs, the tailpiece, the tensioners, and the vellums. Only the strings were purchased elsewhere. If you wanted a case then you had to pay extra whichever instrument you bought. $1.50 got you the waterproof ‘Mackintosh’ cloth case; $5 bought you the flannel lined Keratol covered fibreboard case; $8 secured the classic lockable Ludwig hard shaped case with black Keratol covering and green (occasionally blue) ribbed weave (corduroy effect) lining and Kant-Krack (plywood) construction; $10 got you the same case but with beautiful silk plush lining (I have seen blue, green, maroon, and red) and some of these had a more attractive mottled surface. $10 may not sound much in today’s money, but by the standards of the 1920’s it was approximately five weeks wages - just for the case! NEXT
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