Gold Tone Mastertone™ Model OB-2: Bowtie 5 string Banjo with Hardshell Case #2

Description: Gold Tone Mastertone™ Model OB-2: Bowtie 5 string Banjo with Hardshell Case #2 Description Gold Tone Mastertone™ Model OB-2: Bowtie 5 string Banjo with Hardshell Case Since these are such great banjos, we are selling them with actual photos of the one you will get. I have included 1 stock photo at the end in case you don’t like our photos. This one weighs in at 11 pounds & 1.78 ounces. My banjo guy John loves this banjo , so when we got it in today (6/8/23) his “SET UP” took over a half hour because he probably played it for 20 minutes. It is still brand new though and we aren’t going to display it in our store, but it has been played while we were inspecting it. This wonderful new Mastertone Bowtie banjo from Gold Tone brings back memories of the great Gibson banjos it was modeled after with the same great sound at a lower price. A history of the creation of the new OB-2 from Gold Tone Representative, Marc Horowitz: "In 1963, I was a junior in high school. I was consumed then (as now) with all things banjo. I was playing a Seeger-style longneck Bacon banjo, but I’d recently become aware that what I needed for Bluegrass was a MASTERTONE. In those days, there was no “vintage” craze; the banjos from the 1930s (only thirty years before) were just, well… used banjos. Some players had one, some didn’t. Many of the big Bluegrass names (Scruggs, Reno, Crowe etc.) had pre-war banjos, but some others (Alan Shelton for example) played a contemporary bowtie banjo. I decided that THAT’S what I would get. My father liberated some of my bar mitzvah money and off I went to Roger Sprung’s place to buy a bowtie Mastertone. I was over the moon! I practiced hard and made the rapid progress you achieve when you acquire a professional-grade instrument. While this was going on, the mystique of the “pre-war” Mastertones was coming onto every picker’s radar. Suddenly, EVERYONE wanted a nineteen-thirties banjo! The race was on, and I fell for the legend. When a friend offered to sell me his 1926 RB-5, I made it happen; I sold the bowtie. Fast forward to around ten years ago. I was musing one day about all of the banjos that had passed through my hands over the previous four decades. I fondly remembered that first Mastertone bowtie I had bought new in 1963. I wondered what I would think of one of those now, if I found one. I’d learned a lot about banjo setup over the past forty years. Maybe I could get one of these and optimized it for today’s styles of playing. It's worth mentioning that while a pre-war banjo was thirty to forty years old back in the sixties, a bowtie Mastertone from '63 is now SIXTY years old! I located a mint condition '63 and bought it. After I finished setting it up it was... WOW. I still have it. I found more examples and bought, fixed up and resold them to eager buyers. Today, a clean early sixties bowtie brings five to six thousand dollars, and they sell quickly. These are great banjos. Since the success of Gold Tone’s OB-3 Twanger, we were kicking around ideas for the next tribute banjo when the bowtie banjos of 1960 to mid-1964 were brought up. This was when the bowtie was at its peak of quality. A unique nineteen-hole flathead tone ring (versus the previous twenty-hole version) was used during this time. The banjos were built in Kalamazoo by some of the same people that worked there in the thirties, and the tone rings were still cast by the same foundry that made them back before The War. A full thickness rim and nickel-plated hardware were still used as well. With those specs in mind, we set about creating a worthy modern evocation of this great old banjo: the Gold Tone OB-2 Bowtie. The feature set closely adheres to the original banjo: mahogany neck and maple resonator, a beautiful golden sunburst finish and even a nineteen-hole flathead tone ring. Updated features include superb quality Gotoh machine heads, the renowned Snuffy Smith bridge, a Presto-style tailpiece and dual coordinator rods for precise adjustment. From our hands to yours, the value is superb and the tone and playability are amazing. Enjoy!" Features: Gotoh Planetary Tuners w/ Custom Gotoh Buttons 1-1/4" Bone Nut Mahogany Neck Ebony Fretboard 22 Vintage-Style Frets Gold Tone Bowtie Fretboard Inlays Two-Way Adjustable Truss Rod Nickel Hardware Plain Armrest Cream ABS Body Binding 24 Brackets 5/8" Snuffy Smith Bridge 11" Dual Coordinator Rods Golden Sunburst Finish One-Piece Cast Flange 11" Remo HC Coated Head 14" Mahogany Resonator 11" 3-Ply Maple Rim Presto-Style Tailpiece 11" Notched Tension Hoop 11" Flat Top 19-Hole Bell Brass Tone Ring 26-1/4" Scale Length Gold Tone Hardshell Case Included Specs SKU: I-OB-2+case/6/8/23-#2 – Manufacture: Gold Tone Default SpecsCase includedyesTypeAcousticListing TypeInstrumentBanjo > Butler Music LLC Powered by SaleTurf

Price: 1999 USD

Location: Harrisonville, Missouri

End Time: 2024-08-08T20:30:08.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD