Mandolin neck on a banjo body?

[AskNott]

Today's Indianapolis Star has a pic of a Phish-head at a the Sleepybear Campground. He's playing something with a short, 8-string neck, but it has a body like a banjo (sorta like a shrunken snare drum.) Is this pretty unusual? I have heard of some strange, one-of-a-kind hybrids, such as a 12-string banjo that had so much tension on the bridge that it was hazardous to play.

My question is, is this Frankentwanger an actual production item, or just a tinkerer's toy? I'll try to make a link to the pic, but I'm not very good at it.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/9/157147-4749-009.html

Rats. That gets you the article, and one of the two pix; the wrong one. Sorry. :smack: Fing websites...

[Scarlett67]

I'll bet that he was playing a banjolin. (http://www.mandolincafe.com/archives/builders/banjolin.html) Lots of folk instruments are hybrids: banjoleles, mandocellos, and more that I can't think of at the moment.

[bare]

That's what it would be. They were made popular during the Vaudville era, and were and still are widely made. I have a Gibson that dates around 1920.
Look up banjolin on E-bay and you'll see lots of makes represented.