homemade gourd banjo

Hi. Just built, with the generous help of a luthier friend, a gourd banjo similar to the one in the 1790 painting The Old Plantation.

Got me wondering, do we know how they would have been tuned at the time? I have the 3 and a half strings down to dDF# A...which is basically G tuning without the fourth string. But so far as I know, there are no descriptions of the actual tunings that far back. Still African, or western?

Heres pics of the banjo, and also the painting that inspired it.

Also, is there a Gourd banjo forum or site?

Jim

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