I was also wanting a tone hoop banjo and had found a TB-1 on Craigslist. I told Chris I wanted the neck the same dimensions as the neck on my Hatfield Buck Creek. He said he wasn't building necks at this time but would check with Robin Smith about building the neck. Chris measured the Hatfield neck and gave the measurements to Robin. Robin built the neck and did the inlay, then Chris fretted it with stainless steel frets, fit the neck to the pot, made everything right with the pot, suggested and installed a Kerschner tailpiece, chose a bridge from his stock and put the banjo together. Then he, Russell Carson and Jeremy Stephens picked some tunes on it for the youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovfiyOPEvPI

Banjo #1 is my 1927 Gibson TB-1 conversion with stock pot. It has a 1/4 inch brass hoop. No tone ring! I was impressed!

He then sent the neck and resonator to Robin Smith and Robin finished the neck to match the resonator. Chris put everything back together and played it for a couple of weeks to get everything settled in. When I picked it up I was impressed again. It's really loud and I love the tone. It plays easy and looks great. It's my favorite banjo and the light weight is a good thing. I put some pictures on my home page but my camera skills are not good.

While dealing with Chris I have learned a lot about banjos. He has given me great advice regarding what to look for in old banjos. I was just lucky with my TB-1. I have found another old hex flanged Gibson and Chris has looked at pictures and pointed out things that could be good and bad. I bought the banjo and plan on Chris working his magic on it like he did the TB-1.

I live in Florida and it is several hours drive to Chris' shop but I've driven up to pick up both banjos he has worked on. It's a pleasure to spend a little time with Chris talking about banjos and other things. Plus I get to hear him pick my banjo and he can really pick! I'm looking forward to the next trip.

I forgot to mention that when he measured the Hatfield neck he sort of took the banjo apart, tightened and tweaked on it just a bit and it sounded better coming out than when it went in. No Charge!

Leon