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bluegrassbanjopicker - Posted - 04/11/2015: 05:22:52
Here are my selections:
Deering Boston (Basic, Intermediate), Golden Era, Gabriella, Texas Sesquicentennial, Maple Blossom.
Earl's Gibson
Gold Tone BG-150
Nechville Heli-Mount banjo
Recording King Madison
Gold Tone Cripple Creek series
Deering Goodtime
Cuppophone banjo discussed in an earlier thread
Original Epiphone company Banjos
The one and only Gibson All-American 5-string banjo
My first banjo, an OB-5 Oscar Schmidt. I will never part with it.
bluegrassbanjopicker - Posted - 04/11/2015: 05:24:29
You can include any banjos that are particularly interesting.
JoePasko - Posted - 04/11/2015: 05:32:48
this one's my most one-of-a-kindest :
Edited by - JoePasko on 04/11/2015 05:42:53
deanocraft - Posted - 04/11/2015: 06:43:37
Check out my current player here.
deanocraft - Posted - 04/11/2015: 06:49:14
And there is always this one here.
JoePasko - Posted - 04/11/2015: 07:16:53
quote:
Originally posted by deanocraft
And there is always this one here.
That's great !! I love the feet.
George Flink - Posted - 04/11/2015: 08:09:05
Brooks Masten's First 6 string
S.S.Stewart 6 string 1895
Tubaphone pot with a custom neck, the "dragon"from Bob Anderson
honketyhank - Posted - 04/11/2015: 09:28:34
My first banjo was a circa 1962 Kay openback. I stripped the paint off, varnished, then kolrossed a copy of the famous Pogo with a banjo drawing on the peg head using red india ink, then applied another coat of varnish. Last I saw of it was when I traded it for a mandolin at a pawn shop in Augusta, GA in 1963. Have often wondered what ever happened to my old Pogo banjo.
George Flink - Posted - 04/11/2015: 11:02:53
...and a set of Gibson banjo ukes: UB, UB-1, UB-2, UB-3 and UB-4.
The Old Timer - Posted - 04/11/2015: 13:59:16
Because there are so danged few of 'em, and they are really VERY good bluegrass banjos, I'd throw in the 1960s VEGA Sonny Osborne model.
Maybe also the top of the line VEGA Earl Scruggs model from the 60s, with the full Deluxe/IV gold, engraving, and painting. I wonder if there were any sold -- they were cataloged. Earl's was one of these of course, full bling!
Hoke Jenkins' original RB 6 heavyweight flat head, now that would be one to snag!!
leadbelly - Posted - 04/11/2015: 14:13:56
quote:
Originally posted by George Flink
...and a set of Gibson banjo ukes: UB, UB-1, UB-2, UB-3 and UB-4.
Cute litter- found homes for all of them yet?
George Flink - Posted - 04/11/2015: 17:14:23
They"re at home now with me. The extras are sold.
goldsparkle - Posted - 04/13/2015: 15:14:37
Take a look at the RB-4/Florentine Margaret Boote for sale on CVG banjos and also on Greg Earnest's site.
mike gregory - Posted - 04/13/2015: 17:54:44
None of the banjos I make are exactly like any other of the banjos I make.
Chadbanjo - Posted - 04/16/2015: 05:56:03
What makes these, special one of a kind banjos? Recording King Madison Gold Tone Cripple Creek series Deering Goodtime They are all readily available and pumped out by the thousands, not very interesting at all. Not saying theyre bad banjos.
Cool banjos posted so far. Any Banjo covered in mother of toilet seat is special in my books. Agree the Cuppophone is nuts, awesome banjos.
Edited by - Chadbanjo on 04/16/2015 05:57:19
Paul R - Posted - 04/16/2015: 08:32:21
My Frankenbanjo with Liberty hardware - arch-top and top tension - and peghead inly by Tony Duggan-Smith.
The Old Timer - Posted - 04/16/2015: 13:08:29
Another nearly one-off Vega banjo was the short-lived Martin/Vega V45. New rim, tone ring, neck, D45 guitar inlay, lovely floral peghead, etc. About the only "VEGA" thing about it was the flange with VEGA shaped holes.
The Martin/VEGA V76 was just the VIP model with stars inlays, I think.
deanocraft - Posted - 04/17/2015: 11:50:46
I'm building another pretty unique banjo right now... it will be a 12" openback with a removable resonator. Curly maple and walnut construction with all brass hardware. It will be for sale when completed. Attached is a demo of how the resonator works.
Dean
bluegrassbanjopicker - Posted - 04/22/2015: 08:22:03
What about the very first banjo that Earl owned? Anybody know the whereabouts of that one? Why isn't there more of a fuss about it, than his Granada? Maybe if he had played his first one one all the time, and had never gotten a new banjo, Gibson wouldn't have been as famous. In addition, there wouldn't be as much interest in the banjo as a whole. You would never hear 'Earl's Breakdown' or any of those neat D-tuner-utilizing songs, like 'Bear Tracks.'
To answer a question: whether I would buy a Gibson banjo if they started making them again? Probably not. I'd go for Deering.
Edited by - bluegrassbanjopicker on 04/22/2015 08:24:34
Ks_5-picker - Posted - 04/22/2015: 10:55:02
I don't have pics of it any more,but I once owned a banjo built by Audey Ratliff.He's built over 1000 mandolins since the mid 80s,but only one banjo.I sold it to a kid who lives nearby,so I get to visit it once in awhile. Curly maple with carved heel.The hardware is 24k gold plated and engraved. I think the pot came from Stewart Macdonald. It's one of the most powerful banjos I've ever played,but it had a vine inlay and I kept gettin lost up the neck.The neck was too thick for my small hands,so I fell out of love with it. It's a beautiful banjo,though.
Chadbanjo - Posted - 04/23/2015: 04:23:28
Wow, thats nuts, some banjos i'd be afraid to pick up.
ceemonster - Posted - 05/05/2015: 21:37:13
I like this 12-inch Ramsey Electric disguised as a Stewart with a nifty flower carved on the heel, that has recently landed at The Music Emporium. I've gotten addicted to 25.5" scales, though (or the 25.75 Mike often does), and when I called there they measured the scale on this one at over 26.25 ... but I'd love to have a 12-inch Electric disguised as an S.S. Stewart with this cool heel carving...
themusicemporium.com/product-d...ving.html
Then there is this 12-inch Ramsey half-fret with a weird, alien-mind-control pearl circle on the peghead...26" inch scale on that one . . .
bernunzio.com/product/mike-ram...om-19774/
not shilling for Ramseys or anything here, I love his banjos but others as well. These 2 just loomed into view as very unique . . .
5 String - Posted - 05/06/2015: 08:26:31
The Stelling Scrimshaw. Only 13 were made and each one different from the other. No two are exactly alike. IMO the holy grail of Stelling banjos.
Edited by - 5 String on 05/06/2015 08:29:11
psikes - Posted - 05/06/2015: 12:34:30
Add my Nechville Saturn and my new old Deering John Hartford, what a pair of remarkable banjos.
wormpicker - Posted - 08/09/2015: 15:47:37
Do banjo ukes count? My good friend, and BHO member, Bisbonian built me what I think is a truly one-of-a-kind instrument. It is a tenor mountain banjo ukulele. Besides the fact that there aren't too many tenor mountain banjo ukes around, this one is special because:
1. The fingerboard and peghead veneer are made from a branch I trimmed off a Texas ebony tree that I planted (ca. 1991) in the front yard of of my old house in Tucson, AZ.
2. Knowing that I'm a bit of a geek, Bisbo finished and stamped the banjo on Super Pi Day, 3/14/15 at precisely 9:26:53 (Mountain Time).
3. When I received it, the skin head was a tad low, since our Colorado summer was considerably more humid than southern Arizona, where it shipped from. So Bisbo sent me a higher bridge, custom designed for this banjo.
I think it's a masterpiece. Now I'm desperately trying to learn how to play it!
Paul
(Sorry some of the photos are rotated--I don't know how to fix that)
RB3WREATH - Posted - 08/10/2015: 03:51:49
I just received a matched pair of two of a kind banjos that are unbelievable. I taught Norbert Pietsch how to make his first neck and cut pearl back in my shop in 1982 now look what he is doing. They sound incredible.
Joe Deetz
Texasbanjo - Posted - 08/10/2015: 05:20:18
I've got a one of a kind banjo that no one else has or ever will have, probably. It was made for me by Dale Small. The neck is 3 inches shorter than a normal neck and also narrower and thinner. He made it for me way back in the early '90s when my arthritis was acting up and I just couldn't make chords or reach certain frets because of the arthritis. It's a very well made banjo, heavy tone ring (don't know what kind), sounds great, just like a "grown up" banjo. It was much fun taking it to festivals and jams. Talk about people doing a double take when they saw it -- it was quite a conversation starter, to say the least.
raharris - Posted - 08/10/2015: 07:38:04
I had Doc Huff build me a 4-string internal resonator cello banjo that sounds just brilliant. With my hands going to arthritis I don't get enough chance to play it.
Chadbanjo - Posted - 08/10/2015: 07:44:18
nice keep them comn
TOMCAT - Posted - 08/10/2015: 07:57:23
Frank Neat built Watson banjo
bluegrassbanjopicker - Posted - 09/10/2015: 07:53:07
I'm retracting what I said about my Oscar Schmidt being a one-of-a-kind. I do not appreciate the flimsy hardware on it. I will upgrade to a better banjo fairly soon, if at all possible.
