Having read the comments on a old blog about some old fella selling his earl scruggs special banjo i feel compelled to write .most of these people on that blog have never owned or played one hence ridiculous quotes of 4000 dollars second hand .bearing in mind how scarce these banjos are and the 12k new price tag .it proves how rare they are as there is only 2 videos on youtube .ive owned around 80 banjos 53 were gibsons and these special banjos are in the top 5 .ps one just sold on reverb 8500 uk pounds any thoughts
Well, an "Earl Scruggs Special", as I remember, is a gussied up Gibson, gussied up even beyond a Granada. (I think.) They didn't make many because they were wildly expensive even when they were new. Believe it or not, Gibson even turned out a super double secret password Scruggs model that was priced at $50,000 new. How many of those do you suppose they sold.
Here's a link to a video of member Gabe Hersfeld playing Earl's OWN Earl Scruggs Special, so all can see what it looked like. Someone commented on Gabe's video that he also owned an ESSpecial. So I guess at least two were made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzA_lPCuWMQ
Bluegrass pickers who have that kind of $$ to throw around a going to spend it on a pre-war most likely. Perhaps there was a collector, or maybe 2, who were really into getting these low production showpieces. I've NEVER encountered one in the wild.
Edited by - The Old Timer on 11/25/2024 19:13:54
A friend of mine owns some Gibson Scruggs signature model. I have no idea what the model name is. It features an image of Earl on the resonator. While I admire Earl Scruggs and actually think he was a handsome man, I think that image is a bit over the top. The banjo is a fine banjo and sounds pretty good when my friend plays it. I played it once for a minute, I think, and the neck felt very comfortable to me. Craftmanship also seemed good. But I doubt it is a better banjo than many other quality instruments. That friend of mine has a Stelling, too, and apparently doesn't rate the Earl Scruggs signature banjo above the Stelling.
quote:
Originally posted by phbA friend of mine owns some Gibson Scruggs signature model. I have no idea what the model name is. It features an image of Earl on the resonator. While I admire Earl Scruggs and actually think he was a handsome man, I think that image is a bit over the top. The banjo is a fine banjo and sounds pretty good when my friend plays it. I played it once for a minute, I think, and the neck felt very comfortable to me. Craftmanship also seemed good. But I doubt it is a better banjo than many other quality instruments. That friend of mine has a Stelling, too, and apparently doesn't rate the Earl Scruggs signature banjo above the Stelling.
That banjo with the portrait of Earl Scruggs on the resonator was the most expensive Scruggs model Gibson produced and was called "The Earl". It had to be ordered first in order to be produced. Probably the $ 50,000.00 model Dick mentioned.
quote:
Originally posted by Emielquote:
Originally posted by phbA friend of mine owns some Gibson Scruggs signature model. I have no idea what the model name is. It features an image of Earl on the resonator. While I admire Earl Scruggs and actually think he was a handsome man, I think that image is a bit over the top. The banjo is a fine banjo and sounds pretty good when my friend plays it. I played it once for a minute, I think, and the neck felt very comfortable to me. Craftmanship also seemed good. But I doubt it is a better banjo than many other quality instruments. That friend of mine has a Stelling, too, and apparently doesn't rate the Earl Scruggs signature banjo above the Stelling.
That banjo with the portrait of Earl Scruggs on the resonator was the most expensive Scruggs model Gibson produced and was called "The Earl". It had to be ordered first in order to be produced. Probably the $ 50,000.00 model Dick mentioned.
I don't think it is! My friend has had this banjo for a long time and told me that he bought it from a shop in Germany for something like 5,000DM (which certainly was a LOT of money).
quote:
Originally posted by phbquote:
Originally posted by Emielquote:
Originally posted by phbA friend of mine owns some Gibson Scruggs signature model. I have no idea what the model name is. It features an image of Earl on the resonator. While I admire Earl Scruggs and actually think he was a handsome man, I think that image is a bit over the top. The banjo is a fine banjo and sounds pretty good when my friend plays it. I played it once for a minute, I think, and the neck felt very comfortable to me. Craftmanship also seemed good. But I doubt it is a better banjo than many other quality instruments. That friend of mine has a Stelling, too, and apparently doesn't rate the Earl Scruggs signature banjo above the Stelling.
That banjo with the portrait of Earl Scruggs on the resonator was the most expensive Scruggs model Gibson produced and was called "The Earl". It had to be ordered first in order to be produced. Probably the $ 50,000.00 model Dick mentioned.
I don't think it is! My friend has had this banjo for a long time and told me that he bought it from a shop in Germany for something like 5,000DM (which certainly was a LOT of money).
Well, then probably not. This is the resonator of the "The Earl" model:
Yeah stellings are fine banjos also in my top 5 they have their own sound .but response to old post selling gibson earl scruggs special banjo they didnt seem to have a clue the special banjos changed serial number about 2002 from es to esp think there were approx 1200 made up to 2010 not much info on net .but i dont see um coming up for sale that tells you something
@Emiel: the picture on my friend's banjo is different, just brownish hues in some kind of sunburst framing the way I remember it. I don't remember it well but I remember thinking that it's good that it's not visible most of the time 
There were at one point so many variations of the Earl Scruggs banjo, and Granada banjos being built by Gibson over the years that I really cannot remember how many different versions there in fact were. I would guess near 10 different versions, not necessarily all built at the same time of course. "The Earl," to my knowledge, was in fact the most elaborate and expensive model that Gibson built, and there were only 4 of those made; YES - approximately 50 grand new, and a very large down payment had to be made first to have one built.
Its not the earl .a gibson earl scruggs special sold for 12k new mine is probably one of the last made in 2005 .they probably made around 1200 to 1900 and they changed the prefix before the serial numbers from ess to esp around 2003 .basically they were a very elaborate granda engraved and pearl with earl signiture inlayed on the back and label signed by earl .the earl was similar with a portrait of earl on the back and a 50k price tag .there are only 2 reviews on youtube and the one played by gabe is earls
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