Gibson TB-3 #158-11
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Style 3 was the least
expensive model in Gibson's Mastertone line. It was introduced in 1925 and remained
in production through 1937, when its price was lowered from $100 to $75 and it was renamed
style 75. While the style 3 of the twenties and
early thirties had a two-piece flange with maple neck and resonator, a fiddle-shaped
peghead and the diamonds and squares inlay pattern, the style later changed to the
configuration seen here. The flange is one-piece; the wood is mahogany with two
white/black/white purfling rings on the back of the resonator, and the peghead shape is
double-cut. There is single white binding on the neck and on both edges of the
resonator. The tone ring is a forty-hole archtop, and the tailpiece is a Grover
Presto.
While most style 3 banjos of this period have the leaves and bows inlay pattern in a rosewood fingerboard, they are also sometimes seen with the wreath pattern or the flying eagle pattern shown here. This banjo is unusual in that its peghead inlay is that normally found on style 4 and Granada banjos of the period.
Photos courtesy of George
Stahl.