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Several years ago I was in Nashville to attend the Opry down at the Ryman. It was a snowy January day and I decided to check out Gruhn. It was a slow business day with few customers in the shop and I was fortunate to find George at the front desk. I inquired about the UDM banjo I knew he had in his collection and to my complete amazement he invited me upstairs to take a look. After wading back into a room filled with various cases he plucked the little Gibson out and handed it to me. Needless to say I was thrilled. He described it as one of three (if memory serves) "floor sweep" banjos which Gibson has presented to Uncle Dave I believe sometime in the 40's. This particular banjo had been willed by Uncle Dave to Stringbean and had been purchased by George from Ben Smathers (again, if memory serves). It was, for me, a thrill of my banjo playing lifetime. I quickly tuned the little open-back up and played a couple of tunes in honor of both Uncle Dave and String. It was an extremely gracious act on George's part to allow a complete stranger such an opportunity and I still treasure the memory. After all these years, many thanks, George! A while back I ran across the picture which I use on my homepage of Uncle Dave playing one of these banjos. It's a really beautiful picture.
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