well it says a richie dodson neck,,, and a slone tone ring.. the rim looks like a shoe bracket rim that some one filled in the holes... the rest of the hardware is hard to tell from the pics,,,, its a parts and pieces banjo.

Resonator is Style 4, not Style 12, does not appear to be Gibson manufacture. However the marquetry on the neck sides carefully matches the resonator. Which would indicate possibly the resonator is Dodson too?

I find the shoe bracket rim with crudely plugged holes particularly objectionable.

Whoever put this pot together took the time to find and install a correct top tension style armrest.

But not Gibson made, in total.

On the other hand it's priced MUCH lower than a real Gibson Style 12.

This is for sale on BHO Classifieds. You can reach out to the owner that way

Also not a radiused neck

banjohangout.org/classified/114514

Vstring455

I received a DM from someone I won't identify but who believes the ad was not intentionally meant to mislead but it's quite apparent that failing to add the words "parts banjo" (as '1935tb-11' points out above), in my way of thinking is either a gross oversight or indeed an intentional misrepresentation.

Now, it's also fairly obvious that the seller has some coin invested in creating this fakery (as noted by Dotson neck and top tension hardware -including the period-accurate armrest post), and I consider it, priced at $3,500, not to be a big money maker, but nonetheless, this seller and advertisement claims needed to be called out.

I know a little about Gibson banjos, much less about 'pre-wars', but I do know a few tidbits about the 7s, 12s and 18s, but very much taken aback that the seller may have been confident enough to post such an ad assuming perhaps that the ad text and photos would not raise a flag and be further scrutinized mightily.

So, through this posting was prevented the purchase of a fake 'Style 12' by some unsuspecting buyer. Thanks for your replies. Probably unnecessary to beat this horse any further but it's upon the members here to keep their own house clean in my opinion.

It seems the only prewar portions the shoe bracket rim. The reso is a nice style 4 version, but not prewar. Saying that, its seems like a very well put together banjo, kinda a clone of TT and regular banjo styling, with high end parts. Likely a very good buy at $3500.