8930 - 12 1928 TB-0
open back to five string Conversion Banjo
(click
on the above to enlarge)
· Original 1928 Gibson TB-0 rim
· 1930s Gibson double bound resonator
· Arthur Hatfield Mahogany neck with rosewood
fingerboard
· 1930s Style 1 ‘bats and gulls’ fingerboard inlay and
peg head overlay
· Gotoh tuners
· Hatfield thin profile 20 hole flat head tone ring
· Bracket shoe construction with mid-to-late 1920s hex(agonal) flange added
· Grover Presto windows style tail piece
· Period Elton arm rest
· Older Dogwood strap
“I found this open back Gibson TB-0 on ebay
for a reasonable price and purchased. My plan was to use the rim and hang on to
the hardware for other purposes. As it turned out, the metal, while very
corroded, cleaned up pretty well and I was able to clean it up sufficiently to
maintain the bracket-shoe construction (along with a hex flange) which I like. The interior of the rim was ‘beveled’
meaning that it decreased in width toward the top. This presented a bit of a
problem with adding a full weight tone ring and I went with a pyramid replica
ring by Arnold Clayton. In addition, I used a 30s Kalamazoo resonator for the
original configuration. Arthur Hatfield produced a mahogany neck with rosewood
fingerboard containing the ‘bats and gulls’ inlay pattern with a double cut peg
head.
While this
configuration was very good, I simply could not ‘warm up’ to the instrument as
it was. I took it back to Arthur and he installed one of his thin profile tone
rings – originally designed for thin rims such as the Kalamazoo or Style
00 banjos – and this brought the banjo around to my personal preferences.
I had also been able to purchase an older resonator that was added. That
resonator has a number etched into the interior wood indicating a 1930s date of
production, however, I am not sure if this is accurate.
The result is a banjo
that has plenty of power and lots of traditional ‘mojo!’ Again, the whole is
much greater (in my opinion) than the sum of the parts!”
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$ (Inquire for price) This Banjo is no
longer available on this website.