The prestigious and gold-plated Aristocrat Model Paramount sports three headstock
banners – one reads “Paramount,”
one reads “Wm. L. Lange” who was the owner and one reads “Aristocrat
Model.” As it turns out, two of these
banners have lifted up just slightly up out of the headplate at their top
edge. While they have no doubt been
reglued and are not in any way a disciplinary problem, this is not something we
can correct and it is not our intention to do so. It affects playability and sound not a
whit. This is not often encountered, and
it is quite possible that this occurred due to its having been exposed to dry
conditions over a long period of time.
The banjo shows normal signs of use and wear, the back
is scratched; there are a couple of extremely tiny pieces of purfling missing from the concentric
circles on back and side of resonator; the original Page tuners are gone,
replaced by more modern geared tuners with ivoroid buttons, leaving 8 small holes
on the back of the headstock. In
addition the new grommets around the headstock shafts slightly cover the “A”
and the “t” in “Aristocrat,” but only a little. The back of the neck has a green-crème-green
backstripe, and there is a volute (hand stop) on back of neck behind the
nut. The neck is multi-laminated in the
same green-crème-green motif under the headplate and under the Brazilian
rosewood fingerboard on each side.
The gold-plated metal parts show a degree of
wear/oxidation/discoloration. There are
string-changing marks on the
headplate; the 7 individual design fingerboard pearl inlays (starting from fret
3) retain some of their original etching and jeweler’s black. This is a 24 bracket banjo that displays
“Patented 1555826” at the 3 o’clock position and 7 o’clock on its flat flange.
The gold-plated tailpiece is the flip-open “Paramount Pat. Pend.” type with
filigree engraving, There is a flat armrest that has lost much of its
plating. The rim retains a modern Mylar
frosted head; it has a modern bridge with an ebony and pearl saddle. There are, overall, dings, scrapes, scuffs,
scratches, and what appears to be a small (perhaps a child’s) bite mark at the
16th and 17th fret position on the bass side of the
neck. “Mmmmm-mmm good.”
Our workshop has cleaned up this banjo in a manner that befits its aristocratic mien, and performed a set-up and a restring . It is a worn but still very nice prewar
Paramount and it produces the excellent sound and room-filling presence that
one expects from one of the “Big Five” makers of the Roaring ‘20s and “Make it
Go Away” ‘30s. While it shows some
cosmetic abnormalities it remains steadfast and sturdy, suitable for
performance on radio, stage and screen.