BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Gypsy
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 10:46 PM

Hee, hee, hee. And i thought that the banjo i am listing for my friend on Friday was starting high! Check it out, its a Bacon FF. And i can play with it until sold.

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 01:05 PM

Radical thought here.

An instrument is only as good as it plays (sounds, handles etc.) I am not saying that such instruments play poorly or marginally or not at all. Only that if there is another instrument that DOES play better than the holy icon offered at Elderly it is superior. The Mastertone is of value to a collector just as match books and stamps are valuable to a collector. Can't light yer cigar any better and the USPS takes a dim view of using cancelled stamps. One of my "pet peeves" (can't ya tell) is this whole "collectables" schtick.

Sure, I'd buy a Mastertone for $5 at a yard sale. I'd sell it to a collector, especially if I didn't like the sound or playability.

I once waffled about a pre-war Martin in a shop on Milwaukee's South side. $50! When I finally decided to go get the guitar it was gone!

Played nice too.

CB

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 10:23 PM

You had me going. Now let's get stinkin rich with Cleiegh. I'll be the Canadian distrubutor.

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 10:20 PM

Well ya' know Steve, Cleigh is only one of two!!! And like someone said, the history makes a difference and gawd knows Cleigh has a history.

Speaking of instruments with history, one of Emos Laer Parc's violins recently came up for sale and fetched a healthy sum. It was the one he was killed over which added a lot of value to the instrumnet! Emos Laer Parc was a Scandanavian Violin maker in upstate New York who apprenticed in Germany and had a business in N.Y. building a very high dollar and high quality violin.

Parc was killed by one of his customers about 5 years ago. Actually, it was the father of a young man who was known to be an up and coming violinist. They had sought out Parc and he made them a very custom model which by all reports was exceptional. The boy was quite satisfied I guess but about a year later he failed to take a first place in a junior competition in New York City. Evidently the father couldn't believe this was any fault of the boy and blamed it instead on the violin.

The father and son went to Parc's shop on numerous occasions and although the boy was polite according to others who witnessed these scenes, the father screame and yelled and was adamant that Parc's fiddle had been the kid's undoing and that he should have purchased one of the better known European models. Parc offered to make any adjustments the son might want, but refused to refund the money. I guess he had several well known violinists play the instrument and they all confirmed it's quality and sound.

The final meeting came one night when the father showed up unexpectedly and shot Parc with a .357.....in front of witnesses. The trial was pretty quick and the guy got a life sentence for Second Degree Murder as a result of domestic violins.

   
   

   




   
   
   
   
   

   
Sorry.......(Emos Laer Parc = some real crap)

Spaw----Okay, so it's the 3rd thread I've stuck this piece of shit story on in two days......Gimmee a break, the bad ones only come along every so often and I have to milk the living hell out of them!

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 09:50 PM

'Spaw,

I have taken abuse for my choice of instrument from Guitar pickers, Mandolin pickers and beginning fiddle players. This is the first time I've ever seen the banjo mocked by a guy who blows possums. I believe you've crossed the line sir.

(now if we can somehow come up with a vintage 'Spaw Possum Ocarina we'll all get stinkin' rich and use Pre-War Gibson banjos for stick ball).

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 07:57 PM

Well, $55,000 is a little excessive, but I'm sure it has very low mileage.

Banjoist- sorry I missed your witty posting last August. ;~(

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 07:19 PM

I could pick up a damn decent used car, pay some bills, and not be plagued with a friggin' banjo.......

Helluva' deal there......

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 07:10 PM

Hey Banjoest,

Do you mean like this one??

http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/70U-2315.htm

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: X
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 10:35 PM

Steve:

That's one of my points. All them short necks will be holding up tomato plants and all them neat tenors will be lost.

Charley:

What does this boat, The S.S.Stewart, have anything to do with banjos? ;o)

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 10:30 PM

The cure? A good duct tapin' to a tree in the woods...

But gotta agree on the S.S. Stewart? Cheaper but equal...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 09:50 PM

Charley,

I thought you own all the Stewarts :-)

Banjoest, if the Dixieland equivelant of "Oh Brother" comes out you could be right about the conversions. You'd also have a lot of Gibson owners saying "Now where did I leave that short neck?".

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Aug 02 - 09:12 PM

Hard to see why anyone would be interested in such Gibsons when they could be investing in a nice antique S.S. Stewart.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: X
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 09:55 PM

Steve, you have already read this,

There was this comic that told a story about an ax he owned. He said it was the one that G. Washington used to chop down the cherry tree. But the head had been replaced and so had the handle. When does a Gibson banjo stop being a Gibson and becomes a copy with Gibson parts? Is a Mastertone still a Mastertone with an after market tone ring i.e. a Tenn. 20 or a Huber, etc.? If Gibson didn't make the neck and if it doesn't have a Mastertone tone ring can you still call it a Mastertone? The one on Ebay doesn't have a Gibson neck, no Mastertone ring. It's only the resonator, rim, flange, hoop and tail piece. To me that's like the comic's G. Washington ax. That's why I only do Complete 5-string Mastertones. No TBs, no renecks, no G. Washington ax's.

The guy is trying to sell the "Per-War" mystique.It's worth the 20 grand to someone but not to me. I like my banjo whole. (I own three pre-war Mastertone 5-strings)It probably was a great little tenor banjo (and still is) and it should have been keep that way. In years to come there will be no more TBs and that's sad. I can see the future were Dixie Land music is having it's day and there will be all these guys ripping the 5-string necks off Stellings and sticking 4-string necks on all those Staghorns. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 07:23 PM

BanjoRay,

Or me.

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 06:47 PM

If you look at the Ebay site, it says that the original neck and tone ring are included, so you've got an original prewar tenor Granada. The superb Wyatt Fawley conversion five string neck and McPeake tonering are added extras. Whoever gives the final bid will get his money's worth. It won't, however, be me.

Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 06:25 PM

Interesting subject this has brought up here. How much of the price of a high-end fretted instrument has to do with its musical characteristics and how much has to do with its value as a collector's item?

Here's my humble opinion: The first $3000.00 USD is what you are actually paying for the sound and playability of any fretted instrument. I say this because guys like Bill Collings and Geoff Stelling can make an instrument that rivals anything from the "Golden Age" and sell it for about that much. Anything beyond 3K and you're paying for something besides just the instrument's ability to produce sound. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarilly. If someone has the money and the economy doesn't go totally fecoventilatory they're pretty much guaranteed to get at least as much for it as they paid. If I had won the Lotto last year and sunk a million dollars into Granadas, Loar's and Herringbones I'd be much better off than if I had put that same million into Enron and Worldcom stocks.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: X
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 12:51 PM

That's right Steve but it would have to be that year, that model, (Granada) with a real Gibson 5-string neck, flat head tone ring, all serial numbers matching and in like new condition. It would HAVE to be a real 5-string, original flat head and not converted from an arch top TB like the one on Ebay. You probably can't find one like that in the US or Canada anymore. You would have to go to Japan if you wanted one and buy it through an agent. Gibson didn't make very many RBs in 33, mostly TBs so a 5-string was a rare bird to start off.

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 07:55 AM

My Banjo is a good Japanese copy of a Mastertone, but it used right here at the Mudcat Auction. I'm thinking that this Gibson probably sounds and plays a bit better than mine, but it's being listed at 500 times what I paid for the Aria. I don't think that there is any way the Gibson could sound or play 500 times better than mine, and the reserve hasn't even been met.

Banjoest suggested in an offline discussion that if you could find an all original in good condition it could fetch $60,000.

I think I'll stick with the Aria, thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 05:34 AM

The obvious cure - get your hearing fixed!

:-))

Subject: RE: BS: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: X
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 01:11 AM

Can't stop looking at it, can ya Steve. And it's a TB and not a real RB.

Subject: A cure for Banjo Aquisition Syndrome?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 26 Aug 02 - 11:06 PM

Okay, I like good banjos, but this is a little much.

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