How can it be? Since another thread posted photos of a rare M FON prewar Gibson, I thought I would post some a pretty rare TB-2 that I got in a trade for a Bacon & Day #1 Silverbell. After looking at the photos, I think you will agree that this TB-2 was destined to be a Mastertone banjo, despite the label. Note the plugged hole for the second coordinator rod. Most of all, note the raised head Mastertone tone ring. I think this is one of a single lot of TB-2s that came with a raised head ring. The banjo is pristine and still has probably the original hyde head.
Photos are not great, but here they are!
That's a very nice looking Banjo! The number in the rim is odd being only 4 numbers. I went to the Banjophiles and going by the number is looks to be a serial number instead of a order number. He has a section about serial numbers and he wants information for several that he has listed. If it were mine, I'd be making me a 5 string neck to put on it. Thanks for posting the pics! I like seeing these old Gibsons.
That's a beautiful piece of walnut on that resonator !
Here's a little background on Batch 824 from Greg Earnest's invaluable website
Way cool!! I bet it will sound awesome with that 40 hole archtop ring.
Keeper, for sure.
I knew that the entire batch were TB-2s with 40 hole archtop tone rings. The highest number listed in Banjophiles is 824-13, so my guess would be that there were less than 20 made. In my 50 years of collecting I have only seen one or two for sale and those were not in person. The date that Banjophiles gives is 1936, so these may be a little pre-floor sweep era, but these were definitely meant to be Mastertones, so who knows the whole story.
As far as a 5-string neck, I've got several of this era with 5 string necks so no real need to convert it. I guess I could swap another neck out for a little while to see how it sounds. Incidentally, it belonged to a lady banjo teacher in Pennsylvania and still has her teaching material in the case. I wonder if she really knew what she had was pretty unique.
From Greg Earnest's website:
"......Gibson produced a Recording King-brand banjo offered by Montgomery Ward in 1933 as model #803 which had a pot identical to that seen in the style 2 banjos from lot #824."
The 824 FON group dates to 1934.
I could easily speculate that pots for the Recording King #803 were perhaps already made up by 1933 when the order might have been cancelled by Montgomery Ward (depression times) .
Easy resolution for Gibson would be to use them in a special series of Gibson TB-2s.
From reading the postings of people who have seen, handled, and disassembled scores of Gibson banjos, the one thing I've learned is that when it comes to anything Gibson, you can never say "never" and cannot always say "always."
Besides this sub-Mastertone label on a banjo that appears to be a Mastertone missing a coordinator rod, I have seen on Facebook (I believe on Richie Dotson's page) photos of a sub-Mastertone (might have been an RB-1) with a period-correct and factory original Mastertone label. Knowledgeable people, whose names we recognize but I forget at the moment, confirmed that it occasionally happened. Rare, but real.
If I can find one again, I'll post it or link.
quote:
Originally posted by OldtwangerFrom Greg Earnest's website:
"......Gibson produced a Recording King-brand banjo offered by Montgomery Ward in 1933 as model #803 which had a pot identical to that seen in the style 2 banjos from lot #824."
The 824 FON group dates to 1934.
I could easily speculate that pots for the Recording King #803 were perhaps already made up by 1933 when the order might have been cancelled by Montgomery Ward (depression times) .
Easy resolution for Gibson would be to use them in a special series of Gibson TB-2s.
Thanks Frank. The Recording King connection seems to make a lot of sense. I just wish there had been a bunch of flathead rings laying around when these were built!
I have seen a few, perhaps two or three, of these style 2 banjos over the years with the factory installed 40 hole archtop tone ring. In addition, I noted that those banjos also had “mastertone “ stenciled into the board at the same spot the pearl mastertone block would normally be.
