Hoop?

[Tim Twiss]

Looking at this panting found in the The Banjo Database.

http://www.banjodatabase.org/2DFullInfo.asp?ID=137&title=Warrel 1815, The Banjo Man&2DID=38

It is dated 1815. The design implied is hoop construction. Doesn't that make the appearance of a hoop banjo a little earlier that is usually thought? Often Sweeney gets credit for that, and he was born in 1810.   

 

[Joel Hooks]

Seems to me that Old Joe began to get credit for that innovation only in recent years.  Reading old news clippings and publications from the mid to late 19th century only has him as adding a string and popularizing the banjo.

 

From SSS

"Sweeney, asforesaid, is said to have added the third and fifth strings to the "three string gourd" and made it, what was at the time called a banjo.

 

The banjo at that time had no hoop and system of screw hooks to tighten the head.  The head or skin was usually fastened to the rim with tacks and cement."

 

The strings added theory seems more to be a "some one had to do it, might as well have been old Joe" then fact.  The "hoop" mentioned was a stretcher band- the "banjo" already having a round frame by Sweeney's time.

 

[John Masciale]

The research that I have seen aligns with what Joel is saying, Sweeney, or possibly another player of his ilk probably added the bass string.

 

 However, the hoop is something that really intrigues me here. The dates that I normally see are somewhere around 1840, and this is born out by the sheet music covers of Sweeney's earlier songs (He's shown playing a gourd). Could this be some kind of regional addition, that didn't make it to common use until later?

[Tim Twiss]

Anyway, 1815 is really early.