I don't know what that banjo is. The flange doesn't even match the hooks and nuts. The owner was ripped off 50 years ago when he bought it if he is claiming that it has not been changed while he owned it. As far as I know (which isn't much) Gibson only did 22 or 24 hook designs.

I do understand the feeling...both of being ripped off or thinking I've got something that turns out NOT to be what I thought it was. It just amazes me when a banjo is so obviously not what it is being sold as and expert info is actively ignored.

1977 was more than 30 years after the end of WWII—plenty of time for a postwar pot to age. The seller is engaging in fraud.

50 years ago, people put together just as many parts banjos as they do today. That doesn't make them legit.

Well, the seller added some pictures and now I think it might actually be a Kalamazoo that had all these shoes/hooks added...and a tonering!
As Eric points out, people were "putting together" banjos then as now...Whoever was adding these should have stopped!

and a flange! Hey, whatever made the guy happy. Maybe it's a nice good sounding player, who knows? But please don't sell it as a vintage Kalamazoo.

The rim actually looks like it could be a thick kalamazoo rim. It's just a big bummer that someone did such a hack job adding all those chrome hooks, drilling so many holes in the new plate flange, and riffing on the fingerboard inlays.

The crime is that someone less knowledgeable might buy it thinking it's an "original design" with "historical significance" like the seller says.

it looks like an original kalamazoo that has been brutally mutilated. What kind of tone ring is that?

I'm guessing it was taken from the same Asian banjo as the shoes and flange

I'm going to weigh in on this topic. Some years back, I did have an original KRB, original Kalamazoo 5 string banjo, that in absolutely every aspect, conformed to what we all know as an original RB Kalamazoo banjo of the time period (30's into early 40's?) with THIS exception - the pot / rim assembly DID in fact have many more shoes, hooks and nuts, than what is normal.... of course I will NOT swear all those shoes / hooks / and nuts were original to the banjo.... they sure did appear to be. Let us picture this - those who know, know - those banjo had about (I'm guessing - since I no longer have any Kalamazoo banjo in the house to look at, no MB, PB, TB, or RB Kalamazoo) 18 or so shoes and hooks and nuts.... and a space where there was NOT a shoe, where the L brackets were placed for attaching the resonator. Those banjos normally had a pretty wide space between each shoe.... this banjo that I owned some years back, had a shoe and hook and nut placed in between each shoe of the normal or typical Kalamazoo banjo.... I'll go further and say that all these shoes and hooks and nuts sure did appear to be original to the banjo..... perhaps others have seen this before?

quote:

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Originally posted by Pigeontown Banjo Co

I know it is not the first time this will happen, nor the last, but I'm sure many of you have had this experience. This banjo:

ebay.com/itm/178443146203

is clearly not a prewar Kalamazoo (other than its heavily modified neck and resonator) . Gibson never made a 30 hook banjo. I politely informed the seller of this, to which he replied:

I guess you need to look again because I don't see how a modern pot could be on a banjo that I bought 50 years ago with this pot and I never changed the pot...

Ugh.

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I have had a few similar responses to messages I have sent to eBay sellers. He obviously doesn't realize how much you know about banjos. I dare say you've handle a lot more banjos than I have.

The thing I appreciate so much about the banjo community (and life) is that hopefully we are all learning always...I've had listings in the past six months that a kind member will write me and say, "actually that's a 1990 not a 1991" and explain the serial number intricacies. I love that! Obviously we all have thought we knew things before getting enlightened...but it doesn't take much to SEE that this thing is not whatever it was from the factory!!

To those of us who are pretty well versed in banjos, it is pretty obvious that this banjo is not an original Gibson. The seller is probably banking on the idea that most people who see the ad wouldn't know the difference between a real Gibson and a fake.

16 hooks on most Ka-zoo's

A Kalamazoo has a special aesthetic with 16 hooks and no flange at all. That‘s what I like about them.
This banjo has a flange which does not match the shoes and shows extra holes. Looks terrible.

Worst thing I have seen when it comes to modifications, was a prewar Granada resonator with holes drilled for glas stones 

quote:

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Originally posted by pfalzgrass

A Kalamazoo has a special aesthetic with 16 hooks and no flange at all. That‘s what I like about them.
This banjo has a flange which does not match the shoes and shows extra holes. Looks terrible.

Worst thing I have seen when it comes to modifications, was a prewar Granada resonator with holes drilled for glas stones 

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I like the look as well.  I setup my TB-1 the same way.  The flange seems unnecessary on a shoe bracket banjo.  Just added bling from back in the day.

quote:

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Originally posted by Eric A

16 hooks on most Ka-zoo's

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Yep. Fill in the spaces and you get 30, same as Kay and Harmony.

Maybe more images have been added since the comments, but this for sure a gibson made banjo, that has been heavily modified, poorly. I'm not sure why people are saying otherwise. Its a kalamazoo. The number of hooks is meaningless as this photo show, they were very poorly added later. the correct amount of hole are still shown in this picture. The rim, the neck are poorly treated gibson products. Just look at the wood in the rim, if you seen this era of rims, you can tell this is a prewar gibson product. Same with the neck. The coordinator rod, hooks, flange were added, tone ring and obviously that horrible decorations. But the heart of this banjos is still a kalamazoo made kalamazoo banjo. it also looks to have a prewar presto tail piece, i would like to see the bottom of the neck, these are some of my favorite necks ever made, it could be a canidate for some quality parts, im not sure if the rim could be salvaged or not.