Stanley Hicks Left-Handed Mountain Banjo 5 String Fretless Banjo (1980), black gig bag case.

Stanley Hicks Left-Handed Mountain Banjo Model 5 String Fretless Banjo (1980), made in Watauga County, North Carolina, natural finish, cherry neck, cherry body with skin head, black gig bag case.

This is an exceptionally rare find, the only left-handed banjo of this type known to have been made by Stanley Hicks. Left-handed 5 strings are seldom encountered in any form, but practically unknown in this "Mountain banjo" configuration. It is also just a beautiful and lovingly made instrument from this master of his craft.

Watauga County, North Carolina was home to many of the torchbearers of American traditional music and Appalachian storytelling, but Stanley Hicks in particular was a master of his many crafts including storytelling, flatfooting, and of course instrument making. From humble beginnings as the child of English immigrants, Hicks taught himself how to build banjos and dulcimers like his father and grandfather before him. Like other resourceful mountain instrument builders, Hicks made use of the easily attainable tone woods on his property and likely used the skin of whatever critter was available that week.

The simple but ingenious design of these banjos is far closer to original African-style instruments built in the southern States by enslaved African-Americans than it is to the intricately factory engraved, complex and pearlescent offerings of companies like Gibson and Bacon & Day which were usually financially unattainable to blue-collar pickers of rural Appalachia. This rare left-handed Stanley Hicks banjo was ordered special by a "southpaw" picker in 1980; the chanterelle is on the right side of the neck! It is built with a subtly figured one-piece cherry neck with a smooth D-shaped profile. The body has a cherry top, back sides and tailpiece and a genuine skin head. It is fretless with no markers on the fingerboard and a set of matching hand-carved cherry wooden friction pegs in the headstock.

Hicks was a vital part of the region's folk music community writ large and an avid storyteller, a tradition that holds a lot of weight in Appalachia and earned him several regional and national accolades. He went on to be recorded by the likes of Alan Lomax and was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in 1983, the highest national honor for folk art. He passed away in 1989, building instruments and making music until the end of his life. Today his instruments are considered among the higher quality examples of the mountain banjo tradition, and among the most sought after of this banjo family. If you play 5-string "upside down" don't miss this one!

Overall length is 36 3/8 in. (92.4 cm.), 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm.) width, and 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 26 1/2 in. (673 mm.). Width of nut is 1 7/16 in. (36 mm.).

This Hicks mountain banjo is actually in lovely playing condition, though none of us here are lefties that could truly appreciate such a rarity. Cosmetically it shows just some light wear from use over the years. There are minor scratches and scuffs but no repairs, cracks or splits in the wood. Hicks is still regarded as one of the higher quality builders of his day; with steel strings and hand-made friction pegs it is not the easiest to tune, but rewards the effort with a beautiful and uniquely evocative sound. The skin head appears to be original and in no need of replacement.

Overall, this is a very well-preserved and sweet sounding example of what might well be one of the only banjos of its kind out there for a certain lucky lefty. It is a historically significant and unaltered piece from one of the most revered Appalachian folk instrument builders of his day. It has no original case or bag and almost certainly would not have left the workshop with one; it resides in a modern black canvas gig bag. Excellent Condition.