Prewar Gibson Banjos

Earl Collins, 1937
photo courtesy of Ann Collins; restoration by Ken Landreth

The Gibson Mastertone banjo set a standard of excellence among four-string players beginning in the jazz era of the 1920s and has been the definitive banjo for bluegrass music ever since five-string virtuoso Earl Scruggs came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s. This website is your headquarters for pre-World-War-II Gibson banjo information and identification.