I was wondering if anyone else in banjoland runs into this interesting issue - Many suppliers no longer keep in stock, (and some don't even want to fool with ordering them?) gold plated banjo parts, especially those for standard Gibson mastertone or Gibson style banjos. And very often,
even those who normally do, always seem to be "out of stock." What are your thoughts on this? I know gold plated parts are getting very expensive, but... you know the old saying, you can't sell it if you ain't got it....
I can remember buying a gold - plated flange and tension hoop (probably RK) from Janet Davis, gold-plated Presto tailpiece, co-rods, and armrest from Banjo.com, and a set of gold-plated hooks and nuts from Sullivan, no more than 10-12 years ago, and probably didn't spend more than $200.00......those days are gone, unfortunately..........
I think you'd have trouble buying all the parts I just mentioned in nickel-plate nowadays, much less gold plated.
You can't even find everything you need in un-plated (and send out for gold plating), anymore.
Not a good "state of affairs" currently
Greg Boyd has a few gold-plated parts in stock, but most are sold out.
Perhaps the manufacturers don't sell enough of them to make it profitable to retool that often and perhaps the sellers don't sell enough of them to make it profitable enough to stock them. At least forty-five years ago when I was working in the auto parts store that would have been the case.
I remember calling Bill Sullivan and just saying, I’m doing a Granada, fix me up. He’d call back with total, he’d have it all, I’d mail off a check.
I went on a Quest for gold over copper parts a few years ago and found even "regular" gold plated parts were scarce on the ground. I was told they tie up a lot of capital that often tends to sit around for a LONG TIME before anyone orders. Also, the price of gold parts just tends to keep rising, which means replenishing your parts after a sale just aggravates the use of capital.
I have found that Greg Boyd and Steve Huber are the best places to go, ALTHOUGH USUALLY they order in your part unplated, and then get it plated for you, and charge whatever the going rate is. Yes, it takes months sometimes, and you might even think you've been forgotten. But, they haven't forgotten -- they're often waiting to get a large enough order together for a variety of parts, before orders. No sense complaining about the cost -- it is what it is.
So us gold plate lovers need to develop our sources, and most of all, be PATIENT.
I recently told a friend who had a Gibson Granada reissue with the usual busted Presto to try my supplier, and it turned out he had a duplicate Grover style eagle claw 4 hump in stock probably from the same order when I got a gold plated Grover eagle claw 4 hump! My buddy got his new tailpiece even before the plain jane nickel plated Presto that I lent him made it his New England home from my NY address by US Mail!! That reminds me, I gotta get that nickel Presto back!
I sent an original Gold Star nickel Presto style tailpiece to NPS for gold plating for my Gold Star GF-300. Couldn't find an original Crowe GS tailpiece so I had one plated.
You can get brass tailpieces, etc from the likes of Prucha, which though not gold plating, rather tend to look the same once the initial sheen dulls down. Just saying…
Thanks for all who chimed in on this. I have checked the usual places and suppliers, and won't bother to name them all as most of us are aware. Also, personally, the gold plated banjos never did really trip my trigger more so than nickel - but I do love them, the style 5, 6, Granada, 18, Bella Voce and Florentine. (Don't want to forget the All American!) But still I think if any of our regular suppliers would keep at least one set of gold plated parts in stock - Flange, tension hoop, hooks and nuts, armrest, tailpiece, cood rods, and tuners, they WOULD sell them before too long, as someone is always building a gold plated banjo. Perhaps another avenue would be to get them from one of the banjo builders, such as Gold Tone, Rec King, Gold Star, Huber Banjos, etc. - I realize that perhaps some of these builders may be reluctant to sell parts that were ordered for their own use, but it would eventually increase their own business and that would grow right on up and down the line from whoever THEY get their parts from. One just has to accept that gold plated parts are going to be expensive regardless of where you get them from. Not to change the subject - but top tension banjo parts have also become hard to obtain..... (and VERY expensive!) and don't even bother trying to find real CHROME plated parts. About the only avenue to go that route is to order unplated parts and find someone who will chrome plate them for you....
Edited by - GStump on 03/15/2025 06:56:23
Jimmy Cox told me it cost him $2600 to have a set of hardware gold plated and that was in 2010.
I remember when I had all the parts to my '27 TB-3 plated in gold in around 1966, the tab was $24! It was at a place in West LA...
The Pope
2007 Williams Kenny Ingram Special
Replated the pot assy hw on my propellor Baldwin style D, for $250. I think around 1989.
I've started doing my own plating. I've got the copper down really nice and now I'm getting setup for nickel and 24k gold. The last pot assembly I had plated cost me $250 for the copper (and they say they are not going to do it much longer) and almost $800 for the gold and it took over a year to get my parts back. Let me know what you think! The top side is lightly polished with 0000 steel wool and the underneath is just straight out of the tank.
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