Mandolin-banjo John Farris for an instrument with 8 strings. The Farris banjolin was offered in soprano, alto, tenor, and bass models. However, he "converted it to a four-string instrument," maintaining the mandolin and violin scale length and tuning (GDAE). Banjo hybrids normally take their names from the Banjo- prefix, and then the second half of the other instrument's name, such as banjocello, banjo guitar, and banjolele which implies the banjolin is a sort of mandolin/banjo hybrid. In the advertisement, Farris did not mention where the name came from, but did say that it was "fingered like the violin." Banjolins should not
Mandolin This has been sometimes modified to an elongated hole, called a D-hole. The body has a rounded almond shape with flat or sometimes canted soundboard. The type was developed in Europe in the 1850s. The French and Germans called it a Portuguese mandolin, although they also developed it locally. The Germans used it in Wandervogel. The bandolim is commonly used wherever the Spanish and Portuguese took it: in South America, in Brazil (Choro) and in the Philippines. In the early 1970s English luthier Stefan Sobell developed a large-bodied, flat-backed mandolin with a carved soundboard, based on his own cittern design;