What's new
June 5, 2008--Two
great additions today: a
beautifully preserved early Granada and a
TB-00 with a poignant historical
connection.
June 3, 2008--Bob Curell has
sent in a great photo of his father, Charlie Curell, with
RB-5 #8267-1, and from Chris
McClelland comes
TB-0 #8014-40, with
so many fancy nonstandard features that I'm not even sure it should be called a
TB-0 at all.
May 28, 2008--It's
not every day you come across a
1930s Granada from a previously undocumented lot!
May 20, 2008--The 9550 lot of
TB-3s is an interesting one and it's
getting to be very well represented on the site. . . the newest addition is
#9550-13, the "John Lampart".
April 28, 2008--Randy Lucas of
South Carolina has submitted photos of his two beautiful original five-string
prewars. . . an RB-3 and an
RB-1!
March 27, 2008--I've now added
photos of TB-1 #3-21 in its new
incarnation as a five-string flathead.
March 20, 2008--Too long since
I updated! Here a couple of beautiful gold-plated tube-and-plate banjos:
TB-5 #8252-19, the "Harold Leatherman"
and TB-Granada #9152-57, the
"Selmer Lien", along with a really
neat floor-sweep 75.
February 25, 2008--Today's
additions bring us up to 150 banjos on the site!
TB-5 #8252-23 should be a
ball-bearing according to its serial number, but it's not;
TB-1 #3-48 joins its littermate
#3-21 on the site;
here's one
TB-00 that for some reason left the
factory with an unusually fancy tailpiece; and why did Gibson make
TB-2 #824-10 with a Mastertone tone
ring? We'll probably never know.
February 18, 2008--For all you
top-tension fans (like me), here's a beautiful
TB-12. And how about a rare
wreath-inlay TB-3?
TB-3 #9465-70 has documentation
connecting it to the store where it was originally sold. . . and another
littermate, TB-2 #9520-30, joins the
site.
February 10, 2008--Too long
since I updated! Here's a very rare example of a
1930s TB-3 with flying eagle inlays.
January 20, 2008--Thanks to
Charlie Cushman for the photographs of his beautiful
original five-string RB-11. . . and be
sure to take a look at TB-Granada
#9356-42, from the last known batch of two-piece-flange
Granadas.
January 8, 2008--I'm pleased to add many more photos of a beautiful
top-tension Mastertone that's been on the site for quite a while:
PB-7 #912-1, the "G.I.H. Boshoff".
Today's other additions are a pair of Gibson's super-fancy jazz banjos of the
late 1920s: TB-Florentine
#8682-1 and TB-Bella Voce
#0259-68, the "Joe Ribaud".
January 7, 2008--TB-1 #9190-41
is a rare variant of the model with "Coke bottle" headstock. I've added
new photos of TB-3 #9550-40 (an
original flathead), and TB-Granada
#1485-2 makes three Granadas from the
last known lot that are now represented on the site.
TB-75 #312-3 is in an unbelievable
state of preservation. I'm a sucker for walnut banjos, so it's great to
add TB-4 #276-3, the "Mateo
Quintana".
January 4, 2008--We start the
new year with 133 prewar Gibson banjos on the site. The newest additions
are TB-1 #11786-7 and
UB #11159A-13, a nice pair of
trap-door models from UK collector Robert Rolinson; Rodney Carter's
TB-Granada #9557-9 with a most
interesting flathead tone ring; and Jason Bales's
TB-2 #8054-19.
December 14, 2007--Another littermate arrives on the site:
PB-1 #9559-37 is joined by
PB-1 #9559-40.
December 8, 2007--Here's one of
the niftiest pieces of Gibson ephemera I've ever seen: the string cabinet
offered to dealers in the 1937 catalog.
December 3, 2007--Davis Brown,
owner of RB-75 #F906-2, was also the
son of a banjo player; his father Tal Brown preferred
this beautiful trap-door RB-4.
From Melvin Cumbee comes probably the nicest example of a
TB-18 in existence. Is BAS (Banjo
Acquisition Syndrome) genetic? Maybe so. . . here's
my dad's correspondence with Gibson from 1966.
November 29, 2007--All the way from Germany. . . is it a
Florentine? Is it a
6?
You decide. The
distinction of being the earliest Gibson banjo on this site now belongs to this TB-0 has a highly slanted
peghead logo reminiscent of Gibson's early mandolins.
TB-3 #9524-20 has been on the site
for a while, but its history just got a little more
puzzling. And I'm especially fond of late prewar Gibsons with serial
numbers on the back of the peghead, amber-button Kluson tuners, and big ol'
truss rod covers. . . like TB-11 #E3795-6.
November 19, 2007--Here's a
nice pair of TB-2s. . . one in the old
bracket-shoe style with pyramid tone ring, and one in the later
pearloid and walnut configuration.
October 31, 2007--A lightning strike put my web-publishing out of
commission for quite some time but I'm finally back up and running and have so
much stuff to add, it's scary! Heh. Little joke there. For now, here's Mike Johnson's beautiful,
incredible-sounding, and unbelievably rare
RB-12 #411-1, the flathead
PB-3 #66-5 played for many years by
Charlie Cushman, the recently discovered
TB-Granada #9556-51, the
beautifully converted TB-3 #9588-5
and the banjo that's had everybody talking lately,
RB-75 #F906-2, the "Davis Brown"!
July 27, 2007--I think it's
hard to beat the classic beauty of a well-played but fully original 1930s TB-3.
. . feast your eyes on #42-18!
July 21, 2007--Three great new
banjos this time; PB-3 #9264-7 is a
beautiful example of a tube-and-plate style 3,
while PB-4 #444-1 and
PB-75 #444-2 are a very interesting
pair of original flatheads.
July 8, 2007--We now have
another pair of littermates on the site. . .
PB-3 #8057-12 has been joined by
#8057-2. And all the way from
the Netherlands comes original five-string
RB-3 #9267-3.
June 27, 2007--I love having "littermates" on this site, banjos that once
sat side by side in the old factory at 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo and are
now reunited in cyberspace all these decades later. So here's another one
from the last lot of tube and plate style 3s,
TB-3 #9478-148. I've always
had a soft spot in my heart for Gibson's lowest-priced five-string banjo of the
Depression years, and here's a beautiful example of the
RB-00.
June 26, 2007--The newest addition to the site is a
rare TB-00 with a full-thickness
rim, notched tension hoop, and round hooks. . . the best part is that I got to
meet its original owner! There's also a beautiful example of one of my
favorite prewar banjos: the rarely-seen
hearts and flowers style 4 of the 1930s.
June 19, 2007--I have now added more photos and a complete description of
what is probably the cleanest
PB-11 in existence, formerly owned by Carlos Brown of Reno, Nevada.
Another addition that can be traced to the original owner is
Earnest Ray's beautiful ball-bearing
PB-4. And, to add to the ever-growing list of
style 1 inlay
variations, we have TB-1 #9812-30.
June 10, 2007--Here's a better example of the extremely rare
walnut Recording King
tenor with one-piece flange and forty-hole archtop tone ring. We also
have a beautiful TB-5 with
"iridescent" binding and the last banjo Charlie Poole recorded with. . . an
original five-string, no-hole archtop
RB-4! More to come. . .
May 29, 2007--Lots
of great additions this time around, and more to come! Feast your eyes on
a littermate to J.D. Crowe's famous "Banger": PB-3
#9467-12, the "Morell DoRan". Nearly three hundred lots
later, Gibson's last run of "old style" tube-and-plate
style 3s included TB-3
#9748-155. I previously had no example of Gibson's humble but
serviceable style 0 of the 1920s; that
gap his been filled with the addition of
TB-0 #8040-41. There's an interesting variant of an already quite rare
model in RB-1 #9468-5; it's always
nice to come across vintage photographs of original owners with their prewar
banjos--be sure and take a look at young Donald C. Hill with
TB-3 #9524-20. And to round
out this bunch of additions, there's another beautiful,
minty TB-11.
March 10, 2007--Somehow I was missing an example
of a Kel Kroydon. This has now been rectified with a beautiful
KK-10. And be sure to check
out the latest original five-string Mastertone on the site,
RB-3 #8127-12. More to come!
January 7, 2007--Craig
Korth has sent in some great photos of his beautiful new
TB-7, from the first known batch of
top-tensions ever produced! Other new additions include a
flathead Granada with a very
unusual inlay combination, a vintage photo of Grace Attfield
with her RB-1, a Granada from
the last known batch produced before World War II, and a
TB-11 with an
interesting historical connection.
January 1, 2007--Happy
New Year from The Prewar Gibson Banjo website!
It's hard to believe, but this website is now going into its tenth year online!
I began in 1998 with about four banjos, three of which were mine. As of
today, this website features photos and descriptions of 87 prewar Gibson banjos,
ranging from the humblest bracket shoe model to four original five-string
Granadas, contributed by folks from all over the world. I look forward to
greatly expanding the site in 2007 with more contributions from all of you!
There's lots of new stuff for the new year. Who would have thought a
TB-3 would leave the factory with the "N" in "Mastertone" inlaid backward?
And while bluegrass players often think of the
Granada as the top of the line, it was
actually the lowest-priced and least ornate of Gibson's prewar gold-plated and
engraved models. Next up in the line was the
style 5, and we have a couple of
beautiful TB-5s new to the site: a beautifully preserved
forty-hole archtop model and an
extremely rare example featuring an
original high-profile, full-weight flathead tone ring.
I've
also added a beautiful late TB-75
with amber-button Kluson tuners, and a nice pair of TB-3s
from batch 9559. . . one forty-hole
archtop with a most unusual inlay pattern, and one
rare original flathead.
November 2, 2006--Lots of you are
probably aware that that wild and crazy guy,
Steve Martin, is also a banjo player.
I'm honored to now be linked from his site!
September 30, 2006--Style 1 mania! New
additions include an unbelievably pristine RB-1 from
British Columbia by way of Tim Mullins, a never-before-seen
short-scale TB-1 with Bella Voce inlays (also
from British Columbia--what are the chances?), and an
extremely rare TB-1 with Nick Lucas inlays.
The latter features some high-resolution artistic photos by gifted young
photographer Jillian Pilch.
July 29, 2006--Another
great contribution from Ken Landreth: highly-detailed photos of a
completely original RB-1 #9563-14.
July 26, 2006--Ken
Landreth has kindly sent in some photos of RB-75
#F5883-1 which can be compared to those of its "littermate",
#F5883-5.
July 11, 2006--Original, unaltered TB-11s
are getting harder and harder to find. . . here's
a nice one complete with its original
pearloid pickguard.
July 7, 2006--Joe
Spann's TB-Granada #9557-2 is about as
nice as they come! Wonder how many are still out there under folks'
beds??? And who wouldn't like to come across a beautiful, unmolested
TB-1 like #9543-31?
Joe
Dubow has a nice early PB-3, a
rare diamond-flange RB-1, and an
original Kalamazoo five-string.
April 3, 2006--Another
fascinating "floor-sweep" model
has just surfaced, one of those banjos put together by Gibson employees in the
early forties out of whatever parts they happened to have on hand.
Your webmaster finally got around to correcting a long-standing
error on the
RB-3 #9528-4
page. . . the photos are now properly credited to Tim Mullins. Thanks
for the pics of this landmark banjo, Tim!
February 2, 2006--Condolences to Earl Scruggs and his family on the death
of his wife and business partner Louise Scruggs today.
Today's new feature is Dale Keslering's astounding
five-string flathead RB-4 with Florentine peghead overlay and fingerboard.
. . definitely GFAO (go find another one).
January
6, 2006--Happy Birthday Earl Scruggs! And welcome to the new home of
the Prewar Gibson Banjo website. Please update any links or bookmarks
you may have so you can come visit us often!
I
have spent quite a bit of time going over the entire site correcting format
glitches and repairing (I hope) all broken links. Now that I have things
a little better under control this site will be updated much more regularly
than in the past. In fact, I have lots of new stuff "in the can" which
will be posted as soon as I find the time. For now, here are some
newly-added goodies:
I had the privilege
of working with John Drummond of banjo.com
to help
PB-3 #9580-6
and
RB-75 #518-3 find
good homes within the past year. Neither one of these banjos was on my
site before, but they are now amply represented with what are, as far as I
now, the best quality photographs available anywhere on the web of prewar
flathead Mastertones. Take a good look. . . these are
the real thing!
Speaking of flathead 3s, the site now includes not one, not two, not three,
but four banjos from the famous batch #9528 of flathead RB-3s
with wreath inlays:
RB-3 #9528-1,
RB-3 #9528-3,
RB-3 #9528-4,
and
RB-3 #9528-7.
If, like me, you grew up to the sound of
Earl Scruggs' banjo, you will probably get chills like I did to get a peek
inside The Granada, courtesy of Greg
Rich.
Lots more to come!
Greg
Home
