Gruhn tenor banjo inventory # JE 3014 advertised as being made during Bacon/Gretsch transition has an interesting resonator plate which says "Groton" but not the usual plate.
10 Comments |
 | Polle Flaunoe says:
1/24/2012 7:54:29 PM
John,
I´ve seen and/or restored several examples like this - to me there´s no doubt - it´s faked.
ALL other examples have engraved Pyralin resonator coverings - ALL have stepped flanges with fler-de-lis holes and NONE have the metal tag.
Polle
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| Polle Flaunoe says:
1/24/2012 8:08:55 PM
To me the flange profile indicates an early Dale Small fake - plus I´ve seen several of his fakes having falsified tags and serial numbers.
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 | beezaboy says:
1/25/2012 4:13:08 AM
I met quite a few Dale Small owners at the 2011 FIGA convention. They loved their instruments. I guess he made a nice banjo. Didn't know he made B&D reproductions.
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| Polle Flaunoe says:
1/25/2012 5:05:47 AM
John,
I´ll tell you all about the fantastic builder, extremely highly skilled artist but also the notorious "crook" Dale Small later - this is not the place - and it will take me a very long time doing so.
So for now - please trust me - I do for sure know my "stuff". LOL!
Polle
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| Polle Flaunoe says:
1/25/2012 5:39:18 AM
John,
PS! Do you Skype? If so, we could maybe in the future have some nice Cyber Space "meetings" - I speak English at standard speed more or less - writing it slows me down very much!
Regards
Polle
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| beezaboy says:
1/25/2012 2:23:04 PM
Polle - I have not learned how to Skype. I'm a little old fashioned and new technology baffles me.
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| Polle Flaunoe says:
1/25/2012 7:34:08 PM
John,
OK - but a pity - I take, that we could have had great fun and lots of nice chats/talks - LOL!
Dale Small is most famous for his fantastic theme banjos - f.ex. Steve DiBonaventura owns many of them - have a look at raymerstudio.com/banjos/theme/...fault.htm
But - Dale Small did also upgrade many banjos - especially in the 70s and 80s, I think - and especially B&D´s - I´ve had several of these in my hands/workshop - fantastic luthier works by his magic hands - but also often with falsified parts, stamps, tags and serial numbers. He did btw. often replace some of the metal parts - f.ex. flanges - with his own parts.
Indeed difficult determining for many players/owners - but I´ve studied many of his creations and can often see some patterns in them - telling me, that they are by his hands.
Regards
Polle
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| Polle Flaunoe says:
1/25/2012 7:39:34 PM
Many highly skilled luthiers have over the years "up-graded" especially B&D´s - the top-of-the-tops Henry Lea and later Renee Karnes are however so proud of their creations, that they normally add a metal tag inside the pot telling about the up-grade etc.
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 | TB-4 Guy says:
1/25/2012 8:08:47 PM
The B&D Medalist Plectrum No. 1 that I recently acquired was a Henry Lea restoration and has his plaque inside of the resonator under the neck heel It was restored sometime in the 1960's as I discovered from speaking to the owner's widow. Mr. Lea did a nice restoration but changed none of the original features based on my research of the model.
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 | paddyirishman says:
4/20/2012 12:55:00 AM
Fine looking banjo indeed .Would it be a good buy?
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