No plans for a new tone ring

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Gibson Ballbearing Owners Group

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All those who own or would like to own one of these wonderful instruments are invited to join.

119 Members, Created 1/26/2011 -

Administrators: Couchie (owner)

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From BuckM on 6/14/2014 11:52:10 PM

I bought a 1926 Style 5 last fall. Pot seems entirely original. While it sounds pretty good to me, I had not conducted any A/B testing till today, except with my 1925 TB-3 conversion, also a BB of course. I keep reading posts here about various wonderful flathead tone ring replacements and have been wondering if I should try one.

So today I took the 5 to my local music store and compared a Deering Sierra, Huber Heritage and Huber VRB-3 Truetone. It did not take more than a few rolls noodling at the 17th fret and upwards to hear that the old 5 rings clear, like the sustained ping of a triangle in an orchestra, and the new flatheads can't compare.

Seeing what I was doing, a passerby stopped to listen, then another did. Both made the unsolicited comment that they instantly heard the difference. No doubt about it.

Now maybe the youngsters' strings were not new, or were not optimally set up, but this particular shop really knows acoustic instruments. And I don't know how the BB projects in an auditorium compared to a flathead.

However, most of my playing by far will be practice time at home. I'm looking forward to comparing an old flathead at some point, but I can't imagine it will beat the BB tone.

3 Comments
	revellfa says: 6/16/2014 3:42:49 AM That's because you can't beat that old Ball Bearing tone! Thanks a million for sharing. Maybe someday the majority of the banjo community will be on board with this. I"m convinced that when people say that they "don't like the BB sound" that one of the following two things has happened 1. They played a banjo with a tubular ring thinking that it was a BB and didn't like the tone or, and this one is more likely, 2. They played a BB that wasn't set up properly. When you get one set up properly it can hold it's own with anything in terms of volume and will have such a sweet, vibrant, distinctive tone that you just won't be able to put it down!
	BanjoFlyboy says: 8/14/2014 3:38:33 PM Hey Dasmith. I bought a '26 PB-5 a few years ago that had been converted to a five string. It had a Sullivan conversion ring on it and i played it that way for awhile. It sounded ok, but not great. The rim had not been cut or holes filled so with the help of Paul Hopkins I took all the original parts and put it back to being a ball bearing banjo. It sounds like it is supposed to sound now! You can find some vids with it and pictures on my homepage. Danny
	oded28 says: 9/3/2014 9:03:34 AM I bought a 26 bb plectrum some years ago, and other than a 5 string neck, tail piece, and bridge, left it in original condition. I,ve had people suggest that I put a tone ring on it, turn the bb ring upside down to made it look like a flathead, etc. for my money the banjo sounds and plays fine the way it is. I,ve got banjo's with more volume, but thru a sound system the bb can be just as loud if volume is all you want, but tone balance, especially up the neck are more important in my mind, and I have a problem with altering an instrument from the original as it detracts from the value.
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