I have for sale a 1930 Gibson prewar mahogany Style 3 Mastertone with 40 hole archtop ring!
Serial # in rim and resonator is 9549-26.
Prewar metal is in very good condition with nice flat flange and tension hoop!
Very nice condition prewar rim with around .020 out of round at bottom which is awesome to convert to flathead so that when turned the tone ring skirt should be flush to side of rim for a good mating contact from neck to rim……
Very good example of a 95 year old prewar Gibson Mastertone!
I had a Neat neck on it in the shop and set it up and even with the 40 hole AT ring it was very strong!
I have some sound bytes I will attach upon request.
My friend Jason Davis….banjo player for “Dan Tymenski Band” told me he has had a couple of the 9549 batch and they sound stellar cut for a 20 hole flathead ring.
My friend Melvin Cumbee echoed the same thing about these 9549 style 3s and I know both these guys know what they are talking about.
Can only imagine what is would sound like with a “Sloan flathead ring in it…….
The tenor presto is at another banjo friend of mine, so I put one of my shop prewar prestos on it which is punched…..will sell banjo with punched presto or with tenor presto when it comes back to me.
Rim is not a fatboy….it measures around .620 below prewar flange.
It will ship in a decent hardshell case or the redline tenor case you see in the pics.
Buyer to pay shipping and insurance coverage for total amount of sale.
Will give a 24 hr approval for anyone to check it out and will give full refund minus shipping and insurance cost if banjo gets back to me with no damage and in like condition it was shipped in!
Gentleman I purchased the banjo from said he had the prewar Grover tuners serviced by Dean Meece and I put them on the Neat neck and they functioned great on it,,,just saying!
I am usually not a huge fan of the 2 to 1 Grover pancakes but will say these impressed me!
I think Dean is on to something with his service on these old prewar tuners!
Price $8750.00 plus shipping and insurance in continental USA Only

Thanks for looking…..Don Bryant NC Luthier

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