The Golden Roll

This was Mike Longworth's favorite among the LouZee banjos.

The Golden Roll is a tribute to a very special type of banjo that was popular during the 1920's and early 1930's -- the Pyralin covered banjo. Pyralin was a special compound that was used in several ways to decorate high art banjos.

Pyralin consisted of a suspension of ground fish scales in celluloid. When painted on a wooden surface, it greatly resembles mother of pearl, which is known in the trade as "MOP." Pyralin was also manufactured in sheets, and used as a substitute for mother of pearl in fingerboards and as an overlay for necks and resonators. Sometimes it was engraved, and other times it was painted. It came to be known in the trade as "mother of toilet seat" or "MOTS."*

The headpiece inlay (see below) is a lasting tribute to MOTS.

About the Golden Roll Banjos

The Golden Roll is a deluxe banjo. It has engraved gold hardware and fancy "Christmas Tree" purfling. It has a mahogany neck and resonator, with concentric purfling rings on the back.


     
Front and back view of Golden Roll with mahogany neck and resonator


The resonator has fancy "Christmas Tree" purfling.
The following pictures show the binding and purfling.




Note the engraving on the stretcher band.
Our engraved models have engraved stretcher bands, arm rests,
tuners (four main tuners only) and tailpiece.


The Golden Roll is named after the special inlay on the headpiece and truss rod cover.



The Golden Roll headpiece and truss rod cover.
These banjos will serve as a role model for banjo makers yet to be born.


*No one knows who coined the expression "mother of toilet seat." It could have been Mike Longworth, but it has definitely fallen into general use among instrument makers and vintage instrument collectors. According to some sources, when the son of the inventor of Pyralin learned of the name which vintage instrument buffs had attached to his father's product, he laughed. "My father invented Pyralin as a paint for toilet seats in order to make them more comfortable. Pyralin feels warmer than paint." The man was definitely considerate, that's a certainty!

We have made a custom Golden Roll in maple. To view it, click here.

E-mail: phopkins@united.net.

To return to the LouZee banjo information page, click here.

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