RB 75 tone ring

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Crowe Powered

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Gibson owners group for owners and fans of RB75 Crowe, Blackjacks, RB75VL's and other original Gibsons with a Crowe tonering

42 Members, Created 1/28/2011 -

Administrators: 3fingers (owner)

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From jeff stovall on 1/15/2014 9:29:49 AM

I just purchased a JD Crowe RB75 that is either an 04 or 08 model (I can't remember which order the 08 and 04 are in the ser no.). It is in mint condition, and when I disassembled it, I believe that I'm the first person to disassemble it since it was made. I have read the info here on the Hangout about the tone ring marking, and I have a question. Mine is marked with the script Gibson on the bottom side at the lag bolt hole, but there is no serial number. Would this be a JD Crowe ring that just didn't receive a ser no. marking since it has the Gibson script in the correct location. There is no marking on the face which can be seen when the tone ring is installed.

Thanks for the help.

Jeff Stovall

3 Comments
	Mike Casey says: 1/15/2014 8:52:40 AM I have a Blackjack, one of the first ones made and it came with a tone ring that had no markings. It sounded so good I believed it was a Crowe ring, but like you, I wanted to be certain. I weighed the ring and it weighed 2 lbs. 14 ozs. I called Bill Sullivan and asked him if I sent it to him would he verify it was a Crowe ring. Long story short he did and then properly stamped the ring so there would not be any further confusion. What a great man Bill Sullivan was. He always took the time to talk and to do what he could to help if you had a question or a problem. Anyway, yours is likely a Crowe ring, though I have seen one PM ring in an RB-250 with just the Gibson script logo stamped on its foot. The PM rings came out around '04 so you would want to eliminate that possibility. One sure way to tell is to weigh the ring. If it weighs 3 lbs. or a little less, 2 lb.s 14/15 ozs. it is almost certainly a Crowe ring. The Kulesh and the PM rings weigh in the 3 lbs. 4 ozs. range, a few ounces over 3 lbs. They are also cut a little different under the crown, but that is hard to describe unless you're looking at it. You'll have to go to the trouble of taking your banjo apart again and having it weighed on an accurate scale, but for your peace of mind you can do it. Hope this helps. MVC
	jeff stovall says: 1/15/2014 9:28:30 AM Thanks Mike. I wanted to weigh it last night when I had it out, but didn't have a scale available. I have a Huber ring that is not in a banjo at the moment, and I compared the two (just by feel). My feel wasn't goog enough to tell if there was a 4-5 ounce difference. A friend of mine has an accurate scale that weighs to tenths of an ounce. I will see if he can come tonight and let me weight it. Thanks again.
	kds2879 says: 2/22/2015 9:08:11 AM Does anyone know when they started to make the RB 75's, hear they started late in 1996, just wondering mine was made in October in 97 serial # 75-9710-63
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