Hi everybody!
Just curious: the very first version of the Stelling Red Fox Bill Emerson Deluxe had curly maple, sunburst shaded resonator?
I seem to remember such a combination on a Bill Emerson Deluxe I tried at Mandolin Brothers 30 years ago...
Here's what the Stelling website has to say about the Red Fox:
The Red Fox
May 8, 2014Written by 6khmf
One of our newest models, inspired by master banjoist Bill Emerson, the Red Fox outsold every other model in 1996. Although new models tend to do that, we think that this model will join the Staghorn with its universal appeal and acceptance as a classic banjo design. The fancy curly maple used in this model is enhanced by the reddish stain. The Red Fox in the peghead and the abalone maple leaves in the fingerboard help to make this a very striking model.
Yes, THX... that's the well known part of the story.
I'm almost sure the veri first models were different, with curly maple, not reddish stain but Cremona sunburst.
This is the part I'd like to investigate.
Ciao from Italy!
It would have been me who stained and finished those early Red Fox banjos, and I simply do not remember what color they were. I remember the red stain that was used and I remember the cherry ones, but if there were sunburst finished ones I don't remember them.
i guess the matte gold plated ones with the cherry wood were the red fox deluxe's. Bill Emerson models. there was one for sale a few days ago from banjo warehouse. pretty rare. these had one ring in the back of the resonator. i wanted one pretty bad back then.
