In the mid-1990s well before I had any notion of opening a banjo store, I encountered Mike Ramsey on BANJO-L, and we began communicating frequently. At the time, I had never played any fretless banjos, so we set a date for me to ride my motorcycle (BMW K100RT) up to Appomattox to meet him in person, tour his shop, and for me to play some fretless banjos he had.

So I did, and had a wonderful time and he and I have remained friends since.

As a consequence of that visit, I told him that I would like for him to make me a “fancy fretless,” leaving all the specs and design to him. I sold a kit banjo I had and sent the funds directly to him as a deposit, telling him to take his time, I was in no rush.

Sometime during all this, I was forced into retirement during a downsizing, and decided to open ZEPP Country Music, Inc. in 1998. My first order of business was to become a Ramsey banjo dealer, and later that year, Mike sent me the personal fretless I had requested, s/n 562. It is, indeed, fancy, so I named it “Gaudy Amos Igatur.”

I kept it in the shop as an example of Mike’s work and a fretless demo, and did play it at a few in-store jams, but until I brought it home in 2015 after closing the shop, it had never been out of the store.

This is essentially Mike’s maple Special model, and it has a remarkably beautiful flamed maple neck with a matching flamed veneer on its thin, maple pot, which has a rosewood rim cap--matched by a rosewood heel cap. Being a Special, it has a heavy, rolled brass tone ring. It has its original, 5-Star brand planetary tuners.

The scooped ebony fingerboard has gorgeous engraved inlays--the inlay in the scoop has been shaped to fit the slope of the scooping--something I’ve not seen on any other banjo.

As you can see, I replaced its original Fiberskyn brand head with a Renaissance brand, strung it with Nylgut brand strings, and put one of Randy Stockwell’s Moon brand bridges on it. No, I’m not crazy for putting a compensated bridge on a fretless instrument: I really like what Randy’s bridges do for tone, and with this setup, this banjo has a beautiful (and loud!) voice.

Other than some natural dulling of the nickel bits, this banjo is in excellent condition, with no scratches or dings.

So why would I be willing to part with it? 1) I almost never play fretless. 2) I’ve simply got too many banjos in a small house, so I’m culling the herd.