The purpose of this group is neither to condemn or condone the conversion banjos of Gibson manufacture but share them to all!

180 Members, Created 1/26/2011 -

Administrators: plunka5 (owner) , Arthur Hatfield , banjodr , Bill-in-NC , bryantde , flatthead , revellfa

My Poor Man's Prewar

From zingo on 6/24/2011 3:18:37 PM

Greetings Conversion Conversationalists,

Another little bit of Gibson prewar has left the US and made it's way to the banjo challenged UK... and it's living in my house!
I thought I'd post a quick description of my new toy and see what you folks think.

The rim and resonator are a 1928 matching set which Mr Don Bryant purchased from ebay and did a beautiful job cutting the rim and fitting an Arnold Clayton pyramid ring and really nice clean diamond flange and prewar hardware.

The pot then went over to Hendersonville for a neck. One of the things I love about these style 2's is the almost black colour of the stain. Robin did a fantastic job getting the neck to match the resonator colour.

I got him to do a reverse truss rod (I know I might regret this!) and no volute on the neck. I asked for a vintage lacquer tint over the peghead to give a cream colour to the pearl and yellowed binding to match the resonator. The Gibson script is all handcut by Robin as are the Nick Lucas inlays.

I also wanted a little bit of personalisation so asked Robin to put a Gibson UB4 inlay at the 19th fret instead of the usual double diamonds, which I think works rather well.

It sounds great, not as loud as my flathead banjos and a little less sustain but very crisp and clear. I'm so happy with it I'm thinking of selling one of my new flathead banjos and getting another. Quite fancy a style 1 bracket shoe with a hex flange now to go with it!

Some pics of it here...

http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/photos.asp?id=16811&albumid=5803

 

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