Hello fellow banjoneers,

My original and primary account has faced some technical errors that I’ve been trying to resolve, so I made a backup that I can use for now to log some developments in the banjo-sphere.

Most importantly, I decided to terminate my licencing contract with Gold Tone for my patent-pending banjo mute design:

US Patent : 20250078784

Without being too candid, the issue is that I have not received a single on time payment or legible, credible accounting statement from Gold Tone since they started licencing my product several years ago.

My bi-annual payments have regularly amounted to the sale of about 30 units for each six month period, which amounts to a serious loss of income compared to the small amount I was making producing these from scratch. It’s hard for me to believe that between wholesalers and their large customer base that this is normal, but I do understand that it’s a niche product in a relatively finite retail market.

The issue is profit margins and violations of contract, from my perspective. They will likely deny that they have been at fault in any capacity, but their documented actions and my requests for timely payment, accounting, and accountability all tell a different story.

In any case, I am going to endeavor to produce a new batch of dampers by hand this fall despite facing severe hardships imposed on me by organized criminal activity, which I can not discuss in specificity due to the rules of the forum against political discourse.

(The irony of censorship in this regard is it would tend to protect the actions of possibly politically-motivated parties from public scrutiny and open discourse and historical documentation, but I digress.)

In any case I wanted to announce the development to the market and allow for some time should anyone wish to preorder a Damper/Mute for the Christmas season.

(Gold Tone’s license is set to expire on November 15 based on mutually recognized terms. There may be clearance opportunities before then, as they claim to have had some $17,000 worth of product on hand last time I checked. I’m not sure why, given that it would take them nearly ten years to move that off the shelf if their typical accounting statements are accurate.)

I will attempt to update more soon, and would like to continue liquidating what little remains of my repair shop through the forum here if possible. I had a full brick and mortar restoration business before it was upended and its property dispossessed while I was supposed to be a Missing Person, when in fact I was seeking refugee status in Mongolia and desperately trying to fight through cyberattacks to settle my outstanding affairs in the United States.

My insurance covered zero losses from the wholesale destruction of my small business, by the way, despite credible evidence of advanced signal interference and organized criminal activity which prevented me from normal operations for years before it was finally abandoned in a state of real emergency.

It is hard for me to believe that such systematic, inexplicable misfortunes are unrelated, but I will endeavor to stick to the facts when posting here.

Hope to field some orders for more mutes and dampers come November, and offer some great discounts on unsold merchandise and restoration equiptment between here and there. I will regail you all of my trials and tribulations (whatever their source) when I find the time.

Best regards.
Cody Fielder Meyocks

Instagram : [@]codyandthemountain
TikTok : [@]anthropocene.journal
Wordpress : centerforfolkculture[dot]wordpress[dot]com

Old BHO account : [@]foxdenashland