Exc(-) condition. Moderate fret wear. Area at back edge of resonator where finish rubbed through. One mark on back of neck below 6th fret. Small amount of slight marks on back of resonator.

     Highly figured Maple Resonator and neck. Multiple ivoroid bindings around resonatro and fingerboard. Hearts & Flowers inlay pattern in flat Ebony fingerboard. Five star tuners, with waverly 5th. R.R. spikes installed at 7th, 9th and 11th frets for 5th string capo'ing.

     I think this banjo would be close to Frank Neat's current "Kentucky" model, but comes from an era where many makers would take commissions to hand-build "Gibson" copies. This banjo does have Gibson logo inlaid in Ebony peghead overlay, as well as Mastertone block inlaid at 20th fret.
     This banjo sounds good. It has no problems and is ready to play.

     Exc(-) condition. Some light marks on banjo. Frets recently lightly milled. Tailpiece is pushed to one side to make strings line up better over the bridge and along the neck.

     Traditional Gibson "Bowtie" copy by First Quality. Mahogany neck and resonator. 3-ply maple rim mounted with Kulesh 20-hole tone ring. Rosewood fingerboard with MOP bowtie inlay pattern. Peghead has Gibson logo inlaid in pearl and the Gibson crown inlay below the logo. Engraved Mastertone block inlaid at 21st fret.

     White bindings throughout, including bound peghead. Concentric rings in back of resonator. Nice sunburst 'shading' on resonator and back of neck.

     Comes with Keith 'Scruggs' D-tuners installed at 2nd & 3rd strings. Waverly 1st & 4th tuners.

     You know how sometimes you encounter a banjo that just "has it"? Well, this is one of those. The entire instrument vibrates and resonates when it is played and it has great tone through a wide range of head tensions. Right now it is set at typical "G#" tuning... but it also sounded great when even below G, right at G, and at A pitch.

   

     Hand Made w/ all Gibson Parts.

     Exc(+) condition. Walnut RB-4 style banjo handmade by Greg Boyd from 100% authentic Gibson parts. We produced several of these banjos, and local players refer to them as a "GB-4".

     That's right... in the early 1990's we were very fortunate to have purchased a regular supply of authentic parts direct from Gibson. We purchased raw resonators (unsanded, unbound, unfinished), raw necks (inlaid by Gibson, but unfinished, unbound, unfretted and not shaped), raw unturned 3-ply rims, Kulesh tone rings, 1-pc flanges, tension hoops, and even this 2-pc Tube & Plate flange on this banjo. There were only a very few of the Tube & Plate flanges to buy, and I am sure it was the very old stock, as they match the late '20's and early '30's flanges and were nothing like the larger tubes on 1970's Gibsons. We had to buy the tuners ourselves, but used same tuners Gibson was using at the time.

     Many people can scoff and say this is not possible... but I was there picking up the armloads of necks, boxes of stacked resonators and rims, writing the checks and loading them into my vehicle.

     All in all we produced only about 20 or so of these banjos using all Gibson parts. This particular banjo was made by me for one of my best friends, Dave Kraus, a great area guitar player and singer, who never "took" to playing banjo. So... while this banjo does have some 16 years of clouding of the nickel, it is essentially hardly played. It does show signs of handling over the years, as I am sure it was taken out of the case for players to enjoy at Dave's famous pickin' sessions, but it has no problems and no significant fret wear.

     Neck was hand-shaped and bound by me, fretted and finished by our staff in our former store. Resonator was bound by me and finished in our store as well.

     There is no label, but there is writing on top of rim, below tonering, that states I made the banjo, and it is signed.

     After sitting for so long, we have replaced the 16-year old strings, polished up the nickel a little, and given the banjo a fresh set-up.

     It sounds great. It has big presence and a growly attack. And... it is essentially a true "Gibson", even though it was not assembled at the Gibson facility.