This one has the same tint and if the customer wants the exact replacement, I can do for a fee. To setup and cut one inlay like was in it is just another budget increase. įirst I will drop in an inlay, that is close to the size of the orig cavity, and is from a Gibson Not an easy bind with the fancy extension, but I have done a few so know the tricks. (TB-4’s generally had mahogany or walnut. We will note that this banjo has maple for the neck and resonator. With it’s ‘hearts and flowers’ inlay on the fingerboard, we can date this banjo into the late 1920’s, and we believe this to be a TB-4.
Then its time to get it glued into place and prep for binding Unfortunately, any serial numbers are gone. Bernard pliers will do the compressing, they have a flat plane jaw set. There is information on the database Gibson banjo from this site I have highlighted the line below. Then when its ready to glue on, I can compress it from the center, with glue and clamps to get max push and less chance of excessive neck forward pull. You can see how frets drive by wedging kerfed wood, into a curvature. I will fret it off the neck, to gain maximum board compression. You can see the cupping in the pics, and I showed one of the cupped fret wires in my fingers, its that severe.Then I dye the board, re-slot to proper depth for new wire. Its fill/level/fill low spots/level, over and over until you get where you need to be. Then, add a new base board of maple after heat press to flatten, and start the fingerboard repair.Prepping frets slots using Teflon dams to keep my slots cleanable. A word about the dating of vintage Gibson banjos. I’m a little confused based on a guitar I just purchased.
This is over 100 years ole, it does not go like "clockwork" in a normal day. Photo: Kelsey Vaughn, courtesy George Gruhn.This Gibson RB-3 five-string from 1925 is a rare piece, as is any five-string banjo from the era dominated by tenor banjos. Do the first 2 numbers of the serial number represent the year on Gibson Guitars. Its not always pretty doing this work, and it is how you rebound from difficulty that gets you through a day of Lutherie. Sure, I could have made a new fingerboard and inlay at great cost, but instead I chose the route of saving what it came with. This is when you all need to understand, that there is a Restoration, and then there is what is called CONSERVATION. Got it all cleaned up, low spots filed with #20 and flattened, the sequence is long and tedious. So I ended up using 6 hacksaw blades and in 2 hours, carefully saw it from the neck. Check out this database of old Gibson banjo serial numbers and descriptions: Pre-war Gibson Banjos.
The board let loose with a pop in that area but did not come free cleanly, with an already broken inlay crumbling the rest of the way. Here is a sweet 1934 Granada Tenor from about 1934. I tried to get vinegar down into it, even my steam needle would not free it.
This means there is a dip all the way down its center, and ts high on the edges.Īfter several hours of heat, there was no movement in the glue except at the edges Durante os anos 20 a Gibson foi responsvel por muitas inovaes no design do banjo Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame.
The board is severely "cupped" from shrinkage over time. I was able to free the extension with vinegar injections to soften the hid glue