banjerpicker47 - Posted - 07/12/2016:  18:40:37

I hate to bring up bad old memories, but just curious.   I will start it.   My number one banjo that I sold and regret deeply was an Ome Golden Monarch.   That banjo had bell like tone all the way up and down the neck, was a breeze to play,  and just resonated in my body (seriously) when I played it.   I traded a Gibson Les Paul even up at a Dallas guitar show and just pinched myself that I owned an Ome after so many years of seeing them at Winfields Walnut Valley Festival.  It was a thing of beauty.   I cant even remember why I traded it or sold it and what I got in its place, but it wasnt another banjo...probably either a guitar or a pedal steel.  As I recall I sold it to someone on the forum  that lived in Florida...I think they got a great banjo !

Grey Dog - Posted - 07/12/2016:  19:35:16

I'd wager that Ome's have the highest regret ratio out there....

I regret that I *almost* sold my Ome.

RioStat - Posted - 07/12/2016:  19:37:27

An early '60's Gibson RB 170 open-back, with the full-thickness rim and the small brass hoop, giving it the arch-top look.

This thing looked like it had just left Kalamazoo yesterday. Plus, they're not all that common.

At the time it was the only all original Gibson 5 string I had (got conversions, and "parts" Gibsons), but I'm a Bluegrasser, what did I need an openback for?, so I traded it for a brand new RK 35, which I love.

Just wish I kept the RB 170..........

jduke - Posted - 07/12/2016:  19:57:35

I wish I had my bicentennial Kay back because it was my first back in the early 80s.

dhergert - Posted - 07/12/2016:  19:59:44

I sold a Gibson RB-180 back in the 70s, while I was on a stupid grail banjo quest...  It was my first good banjo; i learned how to stretch my left hand fingers with that banjo.  Only about 360 of them made.  I regretted selling it the minute it was gone.

There is a happy ending though... I was able to buy another RB-180, in very good shape, a few years ago.  it was like a homecoming, two good old friends separated by 40 years.

I won't sell this banjo again, and honestly, I'll leave it and all my banjos for my two sons to play or sell.  My horse-trading days are over. 

-- Don

banjerpicker47 - Posted - 07/12/2016:  20:03:36

Don, that was a good story...glad that you were re-united !    I hope that my horse-trading days are over, but, I doubt it !  :(

danielburdett - Posted - 07/12/2016:  20:16:38

I had to sell a 1979 Gold Star GF-100 because I needed the cash. I hate that I had to do it. Hopefully I'll be able to get another vintage Gold Star. They are killer banjos. 

The Old Timer - Posted - 07/12/2016:  20:18:17

Well, so far I've never truly regretted selling/trading any banjo, and I've disposed of several. There are ALWAYS more interesting banjos out there to pursue.



If there was one I'd like to have back, without calling it a regretful trade, it would be the RB 100 I learned on in the 1960s. Traded it for an RB 250. I honestly believe my old RB 100 is now for sale at Retrofret in Brooklyn! Too overpriced to buy back just for nostalgia. My dad installed the Scruggs pegs and the Vega Pittman sliding 5th string capo -- having it back for those reasons would be the main driver I suppose.

Edited by - The Old Timer on 07/12/2016 20:18:43

Kenneth Logsdon - Posted - 07/12/2016:  21:10:04

Back when I was into building avidly... It was no 6 or 8?... An archtop that just had it all.. But I was selling before completion and it was going out of state. The finish barely had time to dry and I warned him, but out the door it went.. I have always wondered, where and how it sounds now... (don't even remember the buyers name)

Six hundred dollars in hand was big in 77/78!

Edited by - Kenneth Logsdon on 07/12/2016 21:12:01

banjered - Posted - 07/12/2016:  21:58:19

A bluegrasser talked me into selling my Tradesman because he wanted a "different" sound for recording and stage. The regret started out small but it kept growing and one day about 3 months later when it had reached a cresendo he called to give me first choice on buy-back as I requested. I had it back in my hands in 20 minutes after a mad dash across town. Some how he had managed to set it up as the worst bluegrass AND worst open back sounding banjo ever. I'll be playing it this weekend at a Civil War re-enactment, a great banjo! Banjered

Rawhide Creek - Posted - 07/12/2016:  23:17:25

Without a doubt, the Ome Juggernaut I.  

TOMCAT - Posted - 07/13/2016:  00:13:53

My 1977 CF Martin Vega VIP. It was my first good banjo. I've searched for it for 20 some years to get it back.

warpdrive - Posted - 07/13/2016:  02:12:26

Several of the Banjos that Jim Yarboro built for me, a gibson RB-500. and one i got from the Chief before he started the Chief's.
Don't get me wrong, i do regret getting rid of those, but as good as banjos are being built now, i know there is always another one around the next corner!

Bill Rogers - Posted - 07/13/2016:  02:20:51

This one:  frets.com/FretsPages/Museum/Ba.../rb3.html

Rare, but not pricey.

Edited by - Bill Rogers on 07/13/2016 02:23:22

Craig_B - Posted - 07/13/2016:  04:42:21

I wouldn't say I deeply regret selling it, but I wish I still had my mid-to-late 70s Fender Artist. It was one of the ones with the Concertone fingerboard inlays and headstock design (even though it wasn't actually a Concertone), and it was a really nice pro entry level banjo, even if the inlays showed a fair bit of slop and filler. I would have kept it, but in the early '80s I got Stelling fever, and a friend who had just become a Stelling dealer offered me the chance to order one at cost, as a "finder's fee" for telling him about a new location for his shop when he lost his lease, so I had to sell the Fender to get the cash together for the order.

Funny that after all these years, I can clearly remember what it looked and sounded like, but I can't remember for the life of me who I sold it to, or for how much. I've bought and sold maybe a dozen instruments during my life, and I remember the circumstances around each buy/sell transaction except for this one sale.

It was one of the ones with this headstock (not mine - image found on the internet):

revellfa - Posted - 07/13/2016:  06:18:14

2004 Deering Golden Wreath. Knew I shouldn't have sold it when i was packing it up. Didn't need to sell it either but it was going to a young up and comer and I thought he needed it more than me. I've linked this to our group "buyers sellers remorse."

Lew H - Posted - 07/13/2016:  07:11:35

I don't regret selling any banjos, because I've never sold any.  I still have the Kay that I bought used in 1962 for $15. I still play it occasionally, although it needs a fret replacement job. After abdominal surgeries, it was the only banjo light enough for me to lift and play.  Over the years I've accumulated several banjos. I have three old tenors that I had converted to 5-strings (Paramount, Tubaphone, Vega style N), and several more recently built banjos (RB175, White Lady clone, two kit banjos, etc). These all differ in weight, tone, fretboard feel, etc.  I just switch back and forth depending on my mood and needs.  I know that I would regret selling any of these, so I haven't sold any.

dilrods - Posted - 07/13/2016:  07:11:58

Stelling Red Fox. But not because I loved the instrument. Because I bought and sold it so early in my playing that I had no idea how to judge a banjo or tell whether I liked it or not. Now, three years in, I'm beginning to be able to tell what I like, and my curiosity goes back to that one. #LESSON

My great fortune is that I learned that lesson while playing my 1928 TB-3 "one last time" before boxing it up for sale. Still have it. Always will. 

Edited by - dilrods on 07/13/2016 07:15:48

Prescott - Posted - 07/13/2016:  07:24:09

I traded off an original 1906 Fairbanks Imperial Electric #0, 10 3/4" head and 26" scale, that sang with the voice of angels strung with Chris Sands nylon strings. It had remarkable engraved inlays, including the two crowns bracketing the nut. I traded it well, but I miss it sometimes.

5stringpicker2 - Posted - 07/13/2016:  07:42:11

Selling my early 70's model 4286 Alvarez Montana 5 Star that my wife bought me for our first wedding anniversary. I had to put food on the table and keep a roof over my kids heads. I regret having to sell it but not why I had to sell it.

( I  )====='----<: :}

Old Hickory - Posted - 07/13/2016:  09:10:39

Happy to say I haven't sold anything that I deeply regret.

The only two banjos I have sold were my first Mayfair aluminum rimmed (but not bottlecap) learner's instrument and the 1972 Aria bowtie almost Masterclone (made by Kasuga) that followed it.  In 1973, I had my lifetime banjo built for me by John Janzegers. I still own it and it's still my main player. Sold the Aria to help pay for the Janzegers.

Even though I don't regret selling it, the Aria still has a warm spot in my heart -- so much so that I put a 1970s Kasuga flange in my most recent parts banjo.

I do, however, regret selling my first electric guitar -- the bottom-of-the-line Montgomery Ward "Airline" single pickup, prety much like this:

. . . especially since what I bought next was the worst of 60s Japanese junk. (It would be a while before the imports got really good) I did not realize at the time that I probably could have saved a bit more and bought a used Fender Strat or Tele. Or any number of quality US-instruments.

Robby Boone - Posted - 07/13/2016:  09:19:43

Mine was an original RB-11, still with the friction 5th peg, original case and original "arched" hoop.......twas identical to the one that Earl is playing in the photo of him in a t-shirt. I really-really-really wish that I had kept that banjo........the part that I regret most about this one is that I did NOT have to sell it, I was not trying to get to another banjo nor was there a financial "need" in my home......I sold this one out of pure and simple stupidity!!!!

There are two others that I regret incredibly selling, but I know where they are.....they are loved....and their being sold was due to trying to get to a bigger goal that fortunately I was able to obtain both times. When you're just an average poor working Joe (like me) you have to make sacrifices to get to the next level.

Robby

Bill Anderson - Posted - 07/13/2016:  10:41:04

My regret was selling a mid 1950's RB-250 flathead 19 hole.
I sold it to buy something else, some banjo that cannot even remember now; probably got rolled into something good though.
It went to Snuffy Smith for, I think, $1500 about 15 years ago.
I have had a similar 19 hole but it wasn't the same, so I sold it.

Beardog - Posted - 07/13/2016:  10:48:00

2001 Stelling Red Fox. The best Stelling I've had in my hands.

ceemonster - Posted - 07/13/2016:  12:14:14

I sold a like-new late 90s Gibson ESS to an overjoyed purchaser for no price hike over what I paid for it, and don't regret it one bit. I have the '49 Classic with a rosewood fretboard and a Kulesh Big 10 subbed in and like its personality way more than that of the ESS.



In the late 2000-oughts, I sold an excellent-condition 2001 Stelling Swallowtail with the earlier Tony Pass rim, purchased mint and unplayed by me for 7 or eight years, and had a lump in my throat saying goodbye to it, but only based on cosmetics, which I still sigh over. I much later acquired a beautiful used Bellflower with the later, current Tony Pass thinskirt, and love it. But still dream about the Swallowtail fretboard, peghead, and resonator bird in flight.  Judging from the number ratios of what you see up for sale, people prefer the  maple Stellings.  But I love the walnuts.

Edited by - ceemonster on 07/13/2016 12:17:30

kmwaters - Posted - 07/13/2016:  13:39:44

Thankfully the three best of mine are still mine. Hope it stays that way. Just sort of traded up bit by bit. All is well.

RWJonesy - Posted - 07/13/2016:  16:15:13

I miss them all and if I was very wealthy I would take them all back and I would be collecting plenty more!!!😁

Edited by - RWJonesy on 07/13/2016 16:16:48

Oldtwanger - Posted - 07/14/2016:  06:30:18

I bought my first banjo in the mid sixties from J D Crowe; it was his spare banjo.

The pot was good – an early style -100 with an early Faulkner flat ring.  The neck, however, was horrible – skinny, truss rod didn’t work.  It had been an RB-150 neck with the headstock reworked into a fiddle shape and the cutout on one side was larger than the other.  I reworked the neck and traded it off before I learned that it was the neck he had in the “Banger” all those years he played and recorded with Jimmy Martin.  Had I known, it would still be hanging on the wall – in a glass case.



My other regret was a really ragged out Fender guitar I bought used in a Kingston, NY music store in 1959 for 50 bucks.  I tried to play it for a few years – it was difficult because the frets were grooved down to the maple board and I was told that Fenders could not be re-fretted because of the way the frets were put in.  In 1963 I tried a new Fender Jaguar and traded the old one for it.  When speaking of it later I would be asked “Was it a Strat or a Tele?”  I said “It only said “Fender” on the headstock – it looked like a Tele.”



I sure wish I had that “Nocaster” today.

Edited by - Oldtwanger on 07/14/2016 06:33:49

Joe the banjo guy - Posted - 07/14/2016:  07:29:11

I regret selling my epiphone mb-250.  Wish I'd kept it as a backup banjo.  

I did sell my Bishline Midnight Moon, but the fella returned it.  In the meantime, I acquired a Goldstar Gf-85.  Now I have to re-decide if I want to sell the Bishline, sell the Goldstar, or just keep both of them, cause they are both great and very different from each other. 

banjerpicker47 - Posted - 07/14/2016:  09:35:49

RW i like the way you think, and i agree with you...thats what i would do also, with all of my instruments, banjos, steels and guitars !  :)

Doug Knecht - Posted - 07/14/2016:  11:53:49

I had a Fisher Price banjo I threw away once..  wish I still had it

croweclaw - Posted - 07/15/2016:  06:53:46

I used to own a great Epiphone, but had to sell it.  To me and my ear, it was a really good banjo..

Toothless in Kentucky - Posted - 07/15/2016:  21:08:18

None,yet! However I am considering selling the pot to my Gibson RB250. I greatly prefer the tone of The Recording King, I mean they CAN sound as good as instruments of the pre war era, do a comparison onyoutube. Amazing how much this instrument can sound like a $50'000 10x the asking price of the Recording King

RB3WREATH - Posted - 07/16/2016:  03:40:26

The chubby dragon Bacon FF that is in the ring the banjar book.

Joe Deetz

Edited by - RB3WREATH on 07/16/2016 03:40:47

steve davis - Posted - 07/16/2016:  06:26:56

I used each of the banjos I sold to step up.




TB2 conversion
StewMac Vintage kit
G11W
Aria
Silvertone

Sold a few with that intent when bought.
I guess if I had to regret something it would be leaving the 70s StewMac solid ring in the Goldie when I let it go.

mikehalloran - Posted - 07/16/2016:  08:40:12

Hands down, my Fender Allegro long neck. I had three long necks and wondered why—also the case handle was in the wrong location and hurt my hand to carry. Now, when I hear recordings I made with that banjo, I realize how good it was.

According to Buffalo Bros., it went to a collector in Spain.

I regret selling my 1958 Fender Jazzmaster. Damned, fine guitar.

Otherwise, I've bought and sold many over the years. I'm ok with that. 

rupickin5 - Posted - 07/18/2016:  06:09:30

There are two I sorta regret selling...but not really. They each have their own story of acquisition and selling on to their next caretaker/player.

One was a '55 single stop-piece gold-top Les Paul Standard w/ the two cream-colored P-90's ...a good blues player pal bought it from me in '68...that one I wish I had back!

The other is one (original Paramount 5-stringer Style F) I bought (interesting story...) in SF in 1972 or '73. Was hoping to parlay it's sale into acquiring an original pre-war Gibson Flathead. That didn't happen. I called George Gruhn and he said "the buyer for that banjo lives out where you are..." It was Lowell Levinger (Banana). I believe he still has it.

vintageinstruments.com/museum/...page.html

Tom Meisenheimer - Posted - 07/19/2016:  14:31:10

Waaaay back in 1962 I bought a beautiful five string banjo, one of four made on order by William Stahl. I bought it from his widow. I paid $50. It had been made sometime around the early forties but Mrs. Stahl wasn't sure, for a guy (she didn't know who) who never came to pick it up. I had no clue as to the value of it and for me at that time $50 was a lot of money. It was constructed of bird's-eye maple, a five wood laminated neck an inlaid finger board with leaves and vines intertwined. The heel was carved in a floral pattern. It had a brass tone ring, a Lange tailpiece. It was very heavy and I sold it within a year because I needed the five hundred I was offered for it. I sold it through Lundberg's in Berkeley, getting about $400 for myself. Mrs. Stahl had it on the wall of what had been her husband's shop on the South side of Milwaukee. There were a number of violins also for sale and a couple of mandolins neither instrument interested me at the time. She also had a Martin D-28 for sale for the same amount of money. I liked the Martin but I wanted to learn the banjo so I passed on the guitar.

I know this sounds absurd. I swear it is the truth. I don't think she had a clue as to value or perhaps just wanted to be rid of the instruments.

And I do not know if this was the William Stahl who made mandolins back in the late 19th and early 20th century or not. I was green and dumb and wasn't aware of any of the old time instrument makers. I don't just regret the selling of the banjo. I regret even more not having made a point of learning more about the man who made those instruments.

jmcconnan - Posted - 07/19/2016:  15:07:31

I owned a 1960's Fender open back which today would be a bit of a collector's item. The neck of course was two piece walnut. In this case the two pieces were not "book matched" or anything close, making for a rather comical appearance.
A good sounding banjo but for the sloppy inlay work and the dreadful fifth string tuner.

I sold it and bought a Romero.

Flying Eagle - Posted - 07/19/2016:  16:18:38

quote:

---

Originally posted by danielburdett

 

I had to sell a 1979 Gold Star GF-100 because I needed the cash. I hate that I had to do it. Hopefully I'll be able to get another vintage Gold Star. They are killer banjos. 

 

---

You and I are in the same boat,  I had a nice vintage Goldstar GF-100 H&F that I sold because I was going through a divorce and thought I would need all the cash I could get to deal with that crisis.  As it turned out I could have kept the banjo and made it just fine.

FT

rbfour5 - Posted - 07/19/2016:  16:42:18

1970's Fender Concertone Custom

Fender Concertone

swamprunner - Posted - 07/19/2016:  17:47:32

I traded a Fairbanks Vega 5 string with a white lady tone ring to Chet Atkins for one of his solid body Gibson classical electric guitars. He wanted to learn to play frailing style banjo and I needed a elect. classical to play in front of a band without feedback. That was a great old banjo, but since it was Chet, I didn't feel guilty about letting it go. Still wish I had it. B.L.

Old Man - Posted - 07/20/2016:  04:23:36

1996 Stelling Master Flower ,The most powerful banjo I have ever heard.

marksimmons - Posted - 07/20/2016:  18:05:32

I guess that my only regret on selling any instrument ever (I've not done this since!) was to trade in my very first banjo that I learned to play on while in high-school.  I traded my Clifford Essex banjo for part of the cost to get a Gibson RB-100 that I was infatuated with, partly because of its beautiful sunburst finish on the back of the resonator.  The Clifford Essex banjo was sitting in my neighbor's garage, obviously not being played by the owner, Mrs. Stump, and since I was working for her, doing handyman stuff and pulling weeds, or whatever, she agreed to trade the banjo and some lessons for my work for her.  It was, as some may know, sort of a low-priced "starter" banjo, made in the U.K. (not sure of the vintage) - the thing that's really unique about it is that it has a tube that runs underneath the fingerboard at the fifth fret, with a slotted peghead that has a guitar style tuning peg arrangement.   Also, it had the old style calf-skin head that I could buy at the local music store - some may know that you needed to soak the skin in water until limp, and then let it dry out overnight to make it stiff enough to tighten down.  A friend of mine drew this amazing graphic image of a guy with a full-on Jimmy Hendrix hair style with felt pens on the head.  I was seduced by the beauty of the Gibson RB-100 when I traded the Clifford Essex for it in Berkely, but I'll never forget the great plunky sound of my Clifford Essex and thanks to Mrs. Stump for teaching me how to play John Henry and Cripple Creek on it, Pete Seeger style..... I still have the Gibson (along with a few others now too), but I don't think I'll ever let go of another one of my old pals!

fluberian - Posted - 07/22/2016:  14:01:21

Once upon a time (early '70's, living in Syracuse, NY), I bought a cheap Japanese banjo and took lessons from the guy across the street (Tony Trischka). Decided I preferred clawhammer. Took a trip to Kyle Creed's place and bought a sweet little applewood openback he had just completed. After awhile, I moved to Utica, NY and found myself in an Irish band. Spent more than I could afford on a tenor. Had to choose between a Paramount A or an Epiphone A (chose the Paramount. Wish I had bought both!). Decided I needed to sell the Creed (which I wasn't playing anymore) to help pay for the tenor. Sold the Creed to a guy in Utica. Fast forward: still have and playing tenors (Paramount [Irish] and Ode [jazz]), now returning to clawhammer. Have a little no-name 5 string open back which is doing fine, I guess, but if anyone ever hears about an applewood Kyle Creed openback for sale (especially in Utica, NY), I wish they would let me know! 

Edited by - fluberian on 07/22/2016 14:05:04

a g cole - Posted - 07/22/2016:  14:26:41

I sold a .32 cal  pistol when I was about ten years old.  I earned the pistol by carrying water for a relative to set out tobacco plants.  It was an old pistol.  It was a hammerless model.  It was not functional.  It was probably repairable.  A young adult came to my house with my cousin.  He really wanted the pistol. , so I swapped it to him  for  an old cap pistol and a couple of comic books.  I think the pistol would be worth a significant amount today if I had it repaired.  It would probably be over 100 years old now.  The guy I traded it to happened to be a fine fiddle player who won a lot of fiddling contests in Tn & NC in the forties and fifties.  I just did not know about that then.  With foresight I might have been able to trade it to him for a fiddle.