9439 – 11 1929 TB-1 to five string Conversion Banjo

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· Original 1929 Gibson TB-1 ply rim and resonator

· Arthur Hatfield Mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard

· ‘Bats and gulls’ neck inlay and fiddle shaped peg head overlay

· Gotoh tuners

· Hatfield no hole flat head tone ring

· Recording King flange

· Tb1 hardware including grooved tension hoop and flat hooks

· Grover Presto window style tail piece

· Mid-seventies Stew-Mac arm rest

· Lakota bison strap

“This banjo immediately peeked my attention when it became available on ebay due to the ‘coke bottle’ peg head shape and the presence of a truss rod. These features were not commonly available on earlier tb1s. It also had Grover geared tuners as opposed to the friction tuners common on earlier editions of this style. After my purchase, I pondered how I wanted to do the conversion. I settled on keeping the style one configuration (mid 30s as opposed to the 1929 version), i.e. ‘bats and gulls’ fiddle peg head neck and changing the shoe-bracket construction to a bit later one piece flange version. The original hardware was kept (grooved tension hoop, flat hooks and nuts and the windows style Presto tailpiece) and added to a Recording King flange along with a no hole Hatfield tone ring.

Arthur added the mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard and the fiddle shaped peghead common in the early to mid-thirties style 1s. I had a mid seventies 5-Star armrest that was a good fit for the instrument and added to the vintage feel. Overall, the wood and metal was in very good condition when I received it and the resulting conversion is a banjo that is one of my personal favorites. As with a couple of other banjos listed here, I would be very reluctant to sell this instrument!”

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$ (Inquire for price) This banjo is no longer available through this website.