Is there a certain name / term for the neck inlay pattern on an ODE style C ( circa 1978)?
8 Comments |
 | stanger says:
4/24/2026 11:59:21 AM
No name that I know of.
feel free to make one up.
regards,
stanger
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 | TLG says:
4/26/2026 12:40:06 PM
The story I heard is that when Myron K. was working there , they were not selling the "C" model because it had dots in the fingerboard, one night he took some inlays home, brought back a pattern the next day & "SHAZAM" the new "C" inlay pattern was invented. Looks kinda like the "hearts & flowers",,,kinda.
Tommy
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 | chuckv97 says:
4/26/2026 1:55:24 PM
Interesting, Tommy,,, thnx
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| stanger says:
4/26/2026 6:07:53 PM
Originally, the C could be ordered with either snowflake or block inlays. It was also the only model offered in walnut.
As such, it was intended from the very first to be the less expensive alternative to the Style D, but it was too plain looking for the players who wanted some fancy work, and too expensive for those who didn't.
That's why Myron went to work on the C after Baldwin bought Ode. Baldwin wanted to drastically cut down the Styles from 7 (the wood-rim series), and 3 (the aluminum-rim series). They felt that was too many to offer.
Myron did a masterful job re-designing the C. The models went down to 4- a single aluminum-rimmed banjo w/ a mahogany neck, and 3 wood-rimmed banjos, the B,C, and D.
Soon afterward, the B was eliminated too, cutting the line to 3- 1 good entry level banjo, 1 intermediate, and 1 fancy. All of them sold well afterwards all the way to the end of Ode in the Baldwin bankruptcy.
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| chuckv97 says:
4/26/2026 6:37:25 PM
Thanks, Mike. Mine is a 1978,, was that before Gretsch bought out Baldwin? Does anyone know when the last ODE was made?
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| stanger says:
4/28/2026 6:39:00 AM
HI, Chuck...
Gretsch never bought out Baldwin. Both Gretsh & Ode were owned by Baldwin at the same time.
The Ode-Gretsch connection is still rather mysterious to me; Ed Britt and I talked a lot about that.
Ed maintained the Odes were built in the Gretsch factory in Arkansas, which was logical to me, but I maintaned that there were 2 separated crews at work under the same roof.
One built guitars, the other, a much smaller group, built banjos. Both shared the same finishing department.
Anyhow- your 1978 C came from that factory.
No one knows what the last serial number is from the 1980 production, but without a doubt, that was the last year the Baldwin Odes were made. The Arkansas factory was closed forever in the bankruptcy, and all of its records have never been found.
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| chuckv97 says:
4/28/2026 10:10:14 AM
In DeQueen, AK, right? I always thought I’d stop in there and see if the building is still there and take a pic of me holding my ODE in front of it. I read somewhere that Gretsch moved their drum mfg operation from Brooklyn to DeQueen
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| chuckv97 says:
4/28/2026 10:11:25 AM
not AK,, Arkansas
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