Hey everyone.
I've come across an 12" open back marty spencer. I don't have any pictures but seems like standard 3 ply maple construction and fretboard scoop. It's going to need a decent setup but has a nice sound and look. It looks to be very well maintained.
Wondering what a reasonable offer is?
Thanks!
Edited by - bnjmn on 12/09/2024 00:26:21
Although I've never owned/handled one, my impression is that these Spencer banjos are credibly good instruments. Mary Z. Cox has/had one, and that generally speaks as an endorsment for me.
Low ball offer here in the US -- as you describe and with a hard case -- might be around $750USD. "Reasonable" offer might be in the range of $950 - $1100USD.
I had my eye on one a couple years ago. Just didn't pull the trigger. It was $800
This is a "Florida Banjo Made by Marty Spencer. Marty Spencer was a furniture and banjo maker and artist somewhere in the Palm Beach County area of Florida in the 2000s. about 10-12 years ago he moved to North Carolina and I believe got into forestry and gave up making banjos and has since been afflicted with cancer.
I knew him a little bit as he was a fiddler, not banjoist, and because he custom made a banjo for a friend of mine around 2007-9 that I bought from my friend in 2010 when I retired. It is not the standard Florida Banjo which you describe, but a larger banjo with a tubaphone tone ring. My friend challenged him to make the loudest possible banjo with a tubaphone tone ring, with money or the time to make it no object. I was at several sessions of Marty working with my friend and testing it to see how loud it was, when it was still owned by my friend
Marty's main business was making old fashioned hard wood built to last furniture and much of that approach comes off in my banjo and in the Florida banjos like the one that you describe. He created a loud tone by using a lot of hard wood, so that my banjo is extremely heavy and the pot is quite deep. It has a nice tone and ring, but lacks the warmth that comes from my 1924 Vega Tubaphone.
Marty made good banjos, but he really did not make many of them, since he worked by himself and his main business was making furniture and I dont think he played banjo but fiddle.
Bill might have considered purchasing my banjo which I listed here and elsewhere for sale once I bought my Vega Tubaphone around 2014 or 15. The drawback on that banjo is its weight and size. It is quite heavy even compared to a Vega Tubaphone or a RB. I took that banjo back from the store where I was selling it and I do play it.
email me at writerrad@aol.com as I have downloaded everything Marty had on his web site for Florida banjos whic h is no longer online when I learned he was moving away and taking it down. I do not know how to post attachments here on the Hangout.
Edited by - writerrad on 12/10/2024 21:12:28
