ཕ BB TB3

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Gibson Ballbearing Owners Group

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All those who own or would like to own one of these wonderful instruments are invited to join.

119 Members, Created 1/26/2011 -

Administrators: Couchie (owner)

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From RioStat on 8/16/2015 5:48:08 AM

I've become the happy owner of 1925 TB 3 BB Mastertone # 8069-73. When I got it last Winter it came to me with a 1970's Gibson TB250 neck on it, so unfortunately, I don't have the original 1925 neck.

Actually when looking at lists of these FON #'s, I see a bunch of RB's in the 8069 batch, so I hope someone didn't "reverse" convert this thing from an original 5 string to a tenor!

The pot is very clean and un-molested, the entire BB tonering set-up is on it and is going to stay on it, the rim label is in excellent condition, and the original Presto tailpiece is very clean.

Anyway, I bought an appropriate 5 string neck, straight grain maple, squares and diamonds inlay, fiddle-cut headstock, Mastertone in the headstock, and just got this thing assembled last night. Neck was built by Bill Sullivan (so I was told)

Got her strung up and tuned, and even though it needs a little tweaking on the set-up, this banjo sounds really sweet right "out of the gate" !

I'll post pics a little later.

Scott Yates

RioStat on BHO

3 Comments
	TonyW says: 8/16/2015 5:57:02 AM Glad you are loving it.
	Dave1climber says: 8/16/2015 6:30:36 AM In my opinion the ball bearing is the sweetest banjo around, and the 1925 is the best. Enjoy!
	Jim White says: 9/4/2016 6:28:41 PM Greetings! I am fairly new to Banjo Hangout and stumbled into this group a bit ago. I just put my 1925 ball bearing back together today after it being pieces in a box since the early 1980's. Have been using the neck on another banjo for a long time so will not be playing this one again until I can get another neck. My father built the neck for this one and gave it to me for my 11th or 12th birthday. It always had a good tone. I don't know how to post pictures in here but they can be seen on my Banjo Hangout page. Cheers to all ! Jim W
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