Whats a zither banjo?
The zither banjo is a type of banjo often said to have been invented by Alfred Cammeyer. Whilst this claim is clouded with controversy, the broad style of banjo is beyond dispute. It is fundamentally a banjo with a smooth wooden body with the skin stretched over a framework which is suspended inside it (conventional banjos have the skin stretched over the outside of the body). It could be regarded as a wooden instrument (like a guitar or mandolin) which has a skin soundboard quite unlike the conventional banjo which is a drum with a neck on it. A well constructed zither banjo (with a good thick rim and a perch pole) is a fine instrument. It has a very different tone from a conventional banjo and is rather quieter. It can be an excellent instrument for playing “parlour music” or for accompanying singing. They can be set up for a variety of style of playing though perhaps classical picking (the ancestor of 3 finger chromatic) suits them best. The drawback is that zither banjos were somet
