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. By 1929, the forty-hole archtop tone ring was standard on the style 3 tenor, or TB-3, while the PB-3 plectrum and RB-3 five-string were typically seen with the twenty-hole flathead ring. This example is a rare original flathead tenor with an uncut Mastertone label, and is the only known original flathead from lot #9550. The tenor neck is no longer with the banjo and it is not known what inlay pattern it had. The wreath inlay five-string neck is by Ronnie Bales and the resonator was reskinned in the 1980s by Jimmy Cox.
