TENOR AND PLECTRUM BANJOS
78-7670 Ludwig (used, circa late 1920s/early 1930s) “Dixie” tenor banjo, that utilizes a “top tension” system, in very good condition with original hard shell case.
We present is one of Ludwig’s low middle-line models having the full dish wooden resonator with a colorful wood marquetry stripe around the side and ivoroid binding around the perimeter of the back. Said resonator is held in place by four screws on the front of the flange that connect flange to resonator; there is a circular bolt at the center of the back but we’re not sure why other than for decoration. The back, sides and neck appear to be mahogany (with some nice swirly figure on the back); the neck is three-piece, having a center stripe of what appears to be ebony, and a heel cap of stained pear wood. The banjo, which is fitted with its original skin head shows normal signs of use and wear, scuffs, nicks, dings and scratches. There are some scratches on the back of the resonator, scuffs around the headstock; there is finish checking and a bit of roughness around both the heel of the neck and the heel cap which could have been caused by exposure to moisture. There is a slight bow in the neck but not enough to affect playability. This is a most unusual banjo because when you remove the four screws that attach the flange to the resonator, the entire flange comes out, along with it the head and the top-tension brackets, leaving behind the resonator, the neck with its wooden dowel. It produces a bold and powerful tone, and yet it is traditional sounding because of having the skin head, but its melodious sound brings one instantly back to the jazz age. Reasonably priced at $922 or at our cash discount price $895.
76-8698 Vega Vox III (used, 1931) 19-fret tenor banjo, #97430, having etched and
painted celluloid on the sides and polished maple on the back, having a crème bound ebony fingerboard with 9 etched mother of pearl pattern inlays and an extensively mother of pearl inlaid on the headstock that includes “Vega” in a star, a man-eating frn with the words “Vegavox” and “III” at center, bells and flourishes. This painting and engraving of the sides of the 2 5/8” deep resonator is actually quite remarkable – first of all it’s in excellent condition showing only scarce signs of wear – a little bit where the banjo meets the leg – secondly it is elaborate with flowers, leaves, tied bows, a double ring of ribbons; some of the flowers (but not all) retain their red-painted stigmas. The back of the headstock is inlaid, etched and blackened with a very large flower, and so has the ebony heel cap. The heel of the neck is extensively carved with 5 ½” of floral relief. The back of the neck has a back strap that comes from the rear underlay down to the fourth fret and the rest of the neck is five-part (for strength) with sunburst maple in three sections. The back of the resonator is yellowed celluloid (pearloid), and the top and back edges of the side of the resonator are bound in gold sparkle with a black line. The banjo shows light normal signs of use and wear including chips, nicks, dings and scratches on the back of the neck, string changing marks and crazing on the headstock, scuffs on the scalloped and pointed top edge of the headstock. It shows normal light wear on the gold-plated metal parts; it has its original, worn hard shell case. It is missing one bracket (out of 24 top tension brackets) and of the 8 screws that originally held the four-piece flange to the resonator, 5 are missing, only 3 remain – but, because this is top tension, those screws are superfluous -- the brackets stoutly hold the flange to the resonator. The banjo includes an original Vega wrench in the case pocket, some obsolete strings, and a delightful paid receipt dated 5/20/62 from Novicky’s Music and Dance Studios, Manville, NJ for $2 for banjo strings, $2.20 for four extra “A” or first strings, and $3.30 to string it up. Oh, yes, and 40 cents tax. This is one-model-from-the-top of the line Vega Vox banjo, with the appointments of the Vega No. 9 or Deluxe model standard tenor, but with the fancy deep dish resonator that Vega Vox banjos sported and top-tension head tuning, which, in our opinion was 6 years ahead of its time! Our workshop has installed a new Mylar head, set the banjo up, cleaned and polished the frets. This is a truly outstanding professional tenor banjo and one that would make any player – amateur or professional – stand out in a crowd and be a hero to his or her colleagues. $4,118 or, at our cash discount price, $3,995.
78-7642 Gibson (used, 1927) TB-3, solid archtop tone ring, two-piece flange, #8739-28, with worn out original hard shell case.
In the year 1925 Gibson debuted their new Mastertone line of banjos (something that Lloyd Loar was working on before he was unceremoniously fired in December 1924). The first tone ring, utilized for only 2 years, (1925 and ’26), was the 60-hole hollow tube ball bearing. Starting in 1927 Gibson chose to part company with both the hated ball and the discredited bearing, which system didn’t work the way it was supposed to, and introduced two new tone rings simultaneously – the solid (or no-hole) archtop and the 40-hole archtop. These rings were provided banjos seemingly interchangeably. We do not know if customers specified that they wished to order one or the other, or if Gibson simply made them in lots of (say) 48 pieces all the same, or mixed. The first four numbers are the lot, or factory order, number. The numbers after the hyphen are the position within the lot.
The TB-3 was the lowest priced of the new model Mastertones. It has the maple resonator, rim and neck finished so darkly in a deep reddish brown that it’s difficult to know that it’s maple, but at this price level they weren’t selling the beauty of the wood. Both the top and back sides of the resonator are protected by crème ivoroid binding, which was probably white in its time. Four stalwart thumbscrews hold the flange to the lugs inside the resonator; 24 steadfast brackets evenly apply pressure to the nickel-plated stretcher band. This banjo appears to be mostly original, having a Grover Patent “Presto” flip-open tailpiece, a Gibson (no logo) armrest that shows normal nickel wear, a two-piece tube-and-plate flange that, like the rest of the pot is in excellent condition. It has its twin internal coordinator rods, its gold oval “Gibson Mastertone Guarantee” label and its four original geared Grover Pat. tuners with grained ivoroid buttons. Whoever owned this loved to play tenor banjo because the finish on the back of the neck is worn through to the natural maple over approximately 9”, the fretboard is pitted (yeah, but who isn’t), and the frets are worn to the quick. Said fretboard is bound in ivoroid on two sides and in 7 positions presents diamond inlays (some of which are etched, some not) from fret 3 to fret 17. On fret 19 is the famous “Mastertone” pearl block with its ten sans serif letters that mean so much. The pea rwood overlain headstock is fiddle shaped and shows a star, the script Gibson pearl inlaid logo, a five-part diamond, two lower case “f”s that aren’t speaking to one another, and a plain black bell-shaped truss rod cover. The one new component is a Remo Weatherking plastic head that is soiled and worn. The back of the resonator shows continuous and considerable finish checking, some scratches (but not bad) and some very light buckle wear. The rest of the banjo shows normal checking and normal light signs of wear except of course for the fingerboard and back of neck. As a tenor banjo this is only $5155 or at our cash discount price, $5000.
78-7941 Deering (new) 17-fret Boston tenor banjo, #M1101MB, with hard shell plush lined case.
The Deering List is $1979 and the Deering MAP is $1489.
78-7582 Deering (new) Sierra 19-fret tenor banjo, #M085, with hard shell plush lined case.
The Deering List is $2779 and the Deering MAP is $2089.
78-7789 Deering (new) Calico, a fancy 19-fret tenor banjo, #L760, with hard shell case.
The Deering List Price is $4519 and we implore you to phone or email for our own much nicer selling price.
78-7340 Deering (used, 2006) Calico tenor banjo (19-fret) #0983906-H516 in excellent condition with plush lined, arched-top hard shell case.
Deering Banjo Co. is chary with their website descriptions. They describe the Calico as follows: “Honey Stained Curly Maple, Ivoriod (sic) Binding, Wood Purfling, Bell Bronze Tonering.” They also point out that the “Heal (sic) Carving Style” is, um, none – no Heal carving, we guess. So let’s, for a moment, wax rhapsodic and point out that one-piece back of this attractive resonator is highly figured maple stained a honey brown, the sides of the resonator display twin rings of colored wood marquetry, each adjacent to the grained ivoroid top and bottom binding. The inside construction involves twin nickel-plated coordinator rods and a no-hole flathead tone ring. The back of the neck has a modified V-shape and is one-piece of tiger striped maple. The tuners are “Deering” logo planetary, with ivoroid buttons and the ebony headstock overlay, inlaid with swirls of floral mother of pearl and a banner etched “Deering,” is triple pointed and ivoroid bound, as is the ebony fingerboard, which has more moustaches than a cabinet meeting in Krakow. The 17th fret is inlaid with a lovely mother of pearl banner etched “Calico” with feathering (c.f. the eagle). The rim is maple, the flange has a repeating triple circle between each of the 24 nickel plated brackets. The white smooth surface head that bears the “Deering Banjo Co.” logo with the well-fed eagle rampant is still clean and fresh while the traditional style armrest and “Deering” etched tailpiece are still shining and radiant, and so is the sound of this sophisticated and surprisingly fancy tenor banjo which, when a five-string, is located at the mid-point of Deering’s extensive line, but when a 4-string it is at home near the top of the tenor banjo hierarchy. $2835 or, at our cash discount price, $2795.
78-7158 Deering (new) GoodTime open-back 17-fret tenor banjo, #ISI-1809, with zipper gigbag.
The Deering List is $843 and you may phone us for your own low pricing.
78-7158 Deering (new) GoodTime open-back 19-fret tenor banjo, #ISI-1811, with zipper gigbag.
The Deering List is $843 and you may phone us for your own low pricing.
78-7159 Deering (new) GoodTime resonator back 17-fret tenor banjo, #ISI-1808 with zipper gigbag.
The Deering List is $1006 and if you wouldn’t mind phoning or emailing for your own reduced price we’d be right pleased.
78-7160 Deering (new) GoodTime resonator-back 19-fret tenor banjo, #ISI-1810, with zipper gigbag.
The Deering List is $1006 and you may phone us for your own low pricing.
78-7293 Fairbanks by Vega (used, 1922) Style R tenor banjo, #48949, with original hard shell case.
This banjo, which bears the illustrious Whyte Laydie tone ring, has a generous head diameter of 11 7/8". This is the perfect head size for conversion to a Round Peak old time clawhammer banjo, and this is easily obtained by simply adding a 5-string replica neck. This example has the pie plate flat resonator with one screw at the center inside back; said resonator shows a few normal scratches. The back of the neck is golden maple with a central laminated stripe for strength (and vigor) and a pearwood heel cap with walnut/maple purfling. The grained ivoroid bound fretboard is likewise bordered in a black line (the binding on the treble side was expertly replaced and color matched). The ebony fingerboard shows virtually no wear, the frets are round and level, and said board is inlaid with 6 pearl dotmarkers and a large star at the fifth, and a slightly smaller star on the pearwood headplate. Tuners are the original friction machines with grained ivoroid buttons. This is a 30-bracket banjo with a Kirschner Unique/Lyon & Healy, Pat. 12/29/14 and 5/9/16 nickel plated tailpiece that is 2 5/8” long. The skin is old and handsome, and the bridge is correct to the period. The nut is bone, the original slim tubular armrest survives, and the rim is not drilled for nuts and lugs as it has the much desired “bracket band” The worn but original hard case is fitted with a replacement handle. The serial number on the rim matches the serial number on the square dowel, which is stamped with 2 Vegas-in-a-star, a “Fairbanks Banjo made by The Vega Company, Boston, Mass” stamp, “Style R,” and three more patents dated 1890, 1893 and 1909. The sides of the rim, which is largely intact except for missing its metal tensioner at the neck connection, and having paint over the nickel plated guide at the tailpiece side of the rim, has tortoise shell celluloid trim on each side and an ebonized pearwood cap. In the interests of full disclosure, the screw that holds the tailpiece to main lug seems replaced and there is no adjustment screw at the back of the Kirschner. The resonator may, itself be oversprayed but on the inside remain stamped two manufacturer’s logos. We have set-up this banjo nicely and it sings with the voice of the pure and purposeful. It’s best and highest use is as a conversion to 5-string and we are right now interviewing people on the street to see if any passing pedestrian might be a neck maker. So far, none have raised their hand. Remember, this is a 11 7/8” diameter head Fairbanks/Vega Tubaphone. It would make one fine old time 5-string banjo. We’re asking $3087 discount price, $2995 cash discount price, but, knowing that we may not find anybody to make the neck, we may be moved to offering it to you (yes, you) for a thousand dollars less.
78-7097 Super Paramount Artist Professional tenor banjo #176, with hard shell case.
One of the fanciest production model tenor banjos ever designed and produced, the banjo (along with two others at its exulted level) that put Paramount out of business (who would produce a banjo like this during the Great Depression?) this has a three-tier “wedding cake” structure to the rim, flange and resonator. All is gold plated – the stretcher band with its recessed trough that houses all 24 flat hooks, the middle level that has the 22 large round holes and the 24 smaller holes to allow the brackets to extend downward into the final gold-plated level with its 22 large holes and the 2 connection points for the slide-over clips that hold the resonator on. And what a resonator it is: wood marquetry abounds including repeating-Xs in a parquetry circle in a multicolor band of crème, brown and red, a huge wooden inlaid flower in earth tones at the center of the back of the quilted walnut resonator, and, in a circle around the flower a series of flora including blossoms, buds, leaves and stems! Wow! Then there’s the walnut five-piece neck with the sensual hand-stop (volute) carved behind the nut and the delicate, fancy floral etched and blackened mother of pearl inlays in 7 positions. Some are butterflies, some are leaves and flourishes, and one is the bust of Beethoven with fern-like wings. The headstock is a Rococo Riot, with three banners etched with the various titles and the owner’s illustrious name, flowerpots and ferns and horns and winged creatures. Yes, friends, this is a visual free-for-all from the late, great days of the sadly lamented Paramount Banjo Company which went out with a bang. Our workshop has provided this banjo a new frosted Mylar head and a set up so it plays effortlessly and it sounds as crispy and clean as a chilled cheese canoli. $4639 or, at our cash discount price, $4500.
78-7098 Ludwig Ambassador Tenor Banjo, #8222, gold-plated, fancy, engraved metal, but it has an observable neck bow and no adjustable truss rod.
Our workshop has done a yeoman’s job of cleaning the instrument, installing a new white frosted Mylar head and making it as good as it can be, and it plays GREAT below the 13th fret. Anybody who plays above that fateful fret may wish to raise the action by providing a higher bridge. That said, what you have here is an outstandingly beautiful instrument. The fingerboard inlays are masterpieces, thin stalks of mother of pearl form complicated floral fantasies; the headstock has four levels of multi-armed creatures. $2056 or, at our cash discount price, $1995.
15-7000 Epiphone (used, 1966) Resonator-back tenor banjo, #425890, in very good plus condition with original (Gibson logo) hard shell case.
The case is not surprising since Gibson owned Epiphone starting in 1957 and used their standard techniques to build Epiphone banjos. This banjo, for instance, is very close to the design of a Gibson TB-100, having dotmarker fingerboard inlays in an unbound Brazilian rosewood fretboard; having a small brass bead between skin and rim that’s not actually a tone ring, and this one is a flathead although one well-known reference book says they were all arched top. Go figure. This banjo came in with an actual Joseph Rogers, Jr. skin head on it (we presume that Junior took over the company after his dad, who supply just about every major banjo brand in the ‘20s and ‘30s, cast off this mortal distributor cap). We prefer it when a banjo has a new Mylar frosted banjo head and so we will probably have made that change. The headstock shape is different than the equivalent Gibson – having twin peaks and the Epiphone logo in gold script decal. The truss rod cover is a black spear point, bordered in white, held in place by two round hole Phillips screws so that it can’t run away with the nut (if you know what I mean). The tuners, which are said to have been “plastic tuner button” are gold-plated, geared and cylinder bodied with ivoroid buttons which machines were probably provided as an aftermarket feature since the stretcher band, flange and armrest are all nicely oxidized nickel-plated. This banjo has a one-piece flange (I hope you’re writing this down), three thumbscrews, and 24 brackets, the same U-shaped rectangular cutouts in the flange as a Gibson Mastertone, a standard Gibson stretcher band and worn nickel armrest, and a replaced shiny chrome tailpiece. The banjo shows some dings, but less than expected, normal finish checking overall and some light buckle marks on the back of the resonator. There is one full-length coordinator rod inside the pot, and one stub; the rim of the banjo is black and probably maple while the slim, comfortable 19-fret tenor neck is solid mahogany. In so many ways, including the one-piece flange, this banjo resembles the prewar Gibson TB-1 or TB-11; it would probably make a nice conversion to 5-string with the addition of a prestigious Mastertone tone ring. The brown-finish inside of the back of the resonator has the initials “ER” and the letters “OK” which must have been a crude yet effective signal to the supervisor that “ER” thought the work was okay.
15-6925 “The Gibson” 1924-1925 TB-3 in its early version, having a “The Gibson” headstock logo angled in inlaid pearl, #11039A-41, in very good plus condition with original hard shell case.
This banjo is not a Mastertone model and therefore it will not sell for the price range that a Mastertone sells for. But it is still quite beautiful and with great utilitarian value. It has a first generation tone ring -- a hollow tube with around 60 holes through it, probably with no ball bearings, washers and springs under it. It has two metal coordinator rods inside, and that curious two-piece hinged round, mahogany stained maple flat resonator plate that bears crème binding at its edge. This openable reflector has three positions: closed, slightly open or open 3/4 of an inch. It has an oval, crème bound port, just over a corrugated metal drawer pull that doubles as the device that sets the opening. Around the banjo is found the hollow tube flange, 22 brackets, a nominally 10 ½” diameter replaced frosted Mylar head, an engraved “The Gibson” slide-on tailpiece cover with floral etching, a 19” scale length, 18 ½ frets to the body and three more frets over the head, a sunburst finished back-of-neck, mahogany stained maple rim, and a stretcher band with a single continuous trough in it, like the later ball bearing first issue Mastertone had, into which all brackets rest. Three screws hold the trapdoor plate to the rim; the tuners are the open-gear original, filigreed plate, two-on-a-plate with amber celluloid buttons. While there are some scratches on the back of the instrument, and on the neck, and some finger wear on back of neck below the fifth fret and elsewhere, this is all “honest wear.” This banjo is quite playable and, for the small fingered or the traditionalist, this banjo can be the highlight of a collection. It needs nothing – it is “good to go.” $1644 or, at our cash discount price, $1595.
15-6997 Paramount Leader (used, c. 1929) tenor banjo #13061, with original hard shell case.
The Paramount Leader was the fourth up from the bottom and six down from the top of their line. It is a fine and fancy model, however, like most of the banjos of this period it has developed an observable bow in its pretty little neck for which there is little we can do. I has received, at the hands of our professional staff, a set-up, a new Mylar head and some shims under the neck to lower the action. This banjo has been wholly refinished (including the inside of the resonator), but the job is quite good. The original Page tuners were lost for all eternity (for good reason) and replaced with Planetary tuners; and while they were at it, the banjo’s metal parts were re-plated in gold. There are areas on the fretboard that had been pitted in the past and were filled in with wood putty or something (not by us). The pearl fingerboard inlays have lost most of their original blackened engraving but this is also fairly normal to see. It is, overall, a good player, and, although not entirely original, it is gold-plated, fairly ornate, and it sounds great – like a prewar Paramount. $1,850 or, at our Cash Discount Price, $1,795.
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