The red line?

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Fairbanks Collectors

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A.C. Fairbanks and Co. banjos of Boston and the folks that collect them; with primary emphasis up through 1909.

72 Members, Created 2/13/2014 -

Administrators: Bill Anderson (owner)

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From croth on 11/7/2015 9:26:52 PM

Can anyone show me a picture of the red line that some WL7's were known to have under the fretboard and the backstrap?

I have a WL7 with a "borderline" s/n which, depending upon which chart you look at, could either be an early 1904 or possibly extend to early 1905. I'm trying to learn as much about it as I can.

It has what I believe to be the smaller headstock (you can see it in my picture), Consalvi engraving, and a pretty thin rim that I calipered at 13/32. I guess I'm trying to figure out if it has any of the more certain pre-fire indicators. I'd like to see what the red line looks like so I can know what I'm looking for. I'm guessing that if I had the red line, it would be obvious, but I just need to know for sure. Thanks for any help you can offer.

4 Comments
	esmic says: 11/8/2015 6:00:01 AM From your home page photo it looks like your WL7 is a 23000's serial number, which would not have a red veneer. If it were there, you couldn't miss seeing it. (Thin red veneer above thin black veneer on backstrap and below fingerboard). There are knowledgeable people here that could help you more if you posted pics of your No 7, and the serial number.
	croth says: 11/8/2015 7:47:20 AM Shawn, thank you for your reply and it is as I expected. I was thoroughly impressed that you could place my s/n so accurately based on a single picture as it is indeed a very early 23000 one. Would you mind sharing those telling signs of that distinguishes a 23000 series from a 22,000 series for example? As I said, I was pretty certain that the infamous red line would have been apparent to me had I had one, but I wasn't sure of that. As far as posting pics, I have sent a few pics around to a couple of the most recognized knowledgeable people and I have had this banjo discussed at length. I just don't have pics of the neck yet and haven't gotten around to taking any at this time. By the way, I see that you're located in Canada. My information has it that this banjo was once owned by Bob Hutton. Might you know him, or of him, and could you put me in touch with him? Thanks. ~Carl
	Pinacate says: 11/8/2015 5:56:56 PM Look at photo on my homepage.
	croth says: 11/8/2015 6:47:01 PM Thanks, now I get the idea. My lines are black so goes the end of one more branch of my search for answers. Thanks. But I have succeeded, with the help of a number of you, in tracking down quite a number of years of provenance of my banjo, with some remarkably interesting results. Thank you all.
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