neuronz - Posted - 04/16/2019:  11:37:49

For those interested, "Vintage Guitar Magazine" has a two part article about B&D banjos and guitars, written by Peter Stuart Kohman. The first part is in the May 2019 issue, discusses banjos and may be viewed here (for free):



cloud.3dissue.com/196659/19701...#homepage



I just received the June 2019 issue; it describes the B&D guitar line; it isn't online yet, but probably will be in the near future. Fascinating stuff.

Edited by - neuronz on 04/16/2019 11:41:11

kwl - Posted - 04/16/2019:  16:40:50

Thanks, I just read the article. I appreciate you sharing it.

banjonz - Posted - 04/16/2019:  17:39:03

Excellent read. Thanks for sharing.

rfink1913 - Posted - 04/16/2019:  20:56:28

Very cool - as the proud owner of a B & D Senorita #2 flattop (a less fancy version of the one John Fahey played during the later 1960s), I'm definitely ready to read about the guitar I have and the banjos I might want to have...

:")

beezaboy - Posted - 04/17/2019:  04:07:10

I really enjoyed the article thanks for posting.
Kohman puts in a lot of interesting and thoughtful tidbits.
One is that 20's band tenor players scoffed at the B&D bling so B&D banjos appealed more to soloists and novelty acts and that it was rare to see a B&D in a dance band.
So I looked -
The 1930 B&D Silver Bell Banjo Family catalog has photos of 102 individual performers - just 20 orchestras.
By contrast and according to Music Trade Review magazine the 1926 Paramount catalog has 352 individual performers and 167 orchestras with Paramount banjos.
Hmmm...
Also, Kohman seems a little uncertain about Fred Bacon's role with B&D in the 1930's but Music Trade Review magazine reported that Bacon resigned from the company in April 1932. Peter Corfield (banjotrader) has done some digging and confirmed this. So it was David Day who piloted the Bacon Company through the balance of the 30's through the Gretsch buy-out in 1940. In fact it was Day who announced the sale of Bacon Company to Gretsch in a Metronome magazine article March 1940.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 04/17/2019:  04:58:47

quote:

---

Originally posted by beezaboy

I really enjoyed the article thanks for posting.

Kohman puts in a lot of interesting and thoughtful tidbits.

One is that 20's band tenor players scoffed at the B&D bling so B&D banjos appealed more to soloists and novelty acts and that it was rare to see a B&D in a dance band.

So I looked -

The 1930 B&D Silver Bell Banjo Family catalog has photos of 102 individual performers - just 20 orchestras.

By contrast and according to Music Trade Review magazine the 1926 Paramount catalog has 352 individual performers and 167 orchestras with Paramount banjos.

Hmmm...

Also, Kohman seems a little uncertain about Fred Bacon's role with B&D in the 1930's but Music Trade Review magazine reported that Bacon resigned from the company in April 1932. Peter Corfield (banjotrader) has done some digging and confirmed this. So it was David Day who piloted the Bacon Company through the balance of the 30's through the Gretsch buy-out in 1940. In fact it was Day who announced the sale of Bacon Company to Gretsch in a Metronome magazine article March 1940.

---

I read the article last night.  I enjoyed the images that were included.

I wish that he had credited his sources or footnoted the article.

One stament he wrote about banjos being gut string "well good ones" seems... familiar. 

The Old Timer - Posted - 04/17/2019:  05:42:48

Very interesting thanks. It was a surprise to me that Bacon invented the No Knot tailpiece.

banjotrader - Posted - 04/17/2019:  05:52:04

I enjoyed the article to a certain degree as well. Much of it is rehash with a few slipups of note:
1) Bacon Banjo Co ~1905 Forestdale; not until 1920
2) Day as a banjo player; there is no evidence he ever played orofessionally
3) Vega White Laydie; Vega only owned the Co. after in 1904, 3yrs later
4) c.1930 Smeck; introduced in 1927
5) Rarity of being in Jazz Bands; I believe the majority of the soloists played in orchestras (but not necessarily pictured with them in the catalogs)
6) #9 NPU with lionhead; only in Elephant, no.6-8 featured the lionhead
7) Late period SilverBell Guitar-Banjos availability; were available early on.

Sadly no mention of:
- Wurlitzer
- The 1932 departure of both Fred Bacon and David Day; with Day returning soon after.
- Early investors in Forestdale operation
- Investors in the Groton operation

I do very much wish these type of articles would be fact-checked with the people "in-the-know" about such things.

Peter

Joel Hooks - Posted - 04/17/2019:  06:14:47

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Old Timer

Very interesting thanks. It was a surprise to me that Bacon invented the No Knot tailpiece.

---

patents.google.com/patent/US68...iece+1901

Yep.

Bacon was quite the inventor, and not just for banjo stuff.  The next issue of the 5 Stringer (magazine of the American Banjo Fraternity- available with membership) that is scheduled to come out in a couple of months will have a more thorough article on Bacon (and fully footnoted) by John Hoft.

banjotrader - Posted - 04/17/2019:  07:04:09

Looking forward to it. John and I, as well as others like Polle/Ed Britt, etc.. have studied this topic extensively and have left few stones unturned. So I expect a very cohesive portrayal.

beezaboy - Posted - 04/17/2019:  09:00:39

No Knot.
I don't think Fred Bacon invented the No-Knot tailpiece.
His patent is for a tailpiece with compressible pegs. Bacon's patent drawing as I recall looks No-Knotty but it's not No-Knot.
The real No-Knot was first advertised in The Cadenza Oct. 1901.
In Jan. 1904 Cadenza is an ad and little blurb that Bacon purchased the rights to the No-Knot and thereafter Bacon sold the No-Knot along with his bridges and strings