Banjos

We had a hard time pinning this model down, but our friends at Gibson Customer Service believe it’s most likely a late sixties to early seventies Gibson ‘varsity model’, which would have been supplied to an American college or university music faculty, as part of the company’s long-standing tradition of supporting music in schools. Possibly a more economical version of the TB-100 model, with a Rosewood armrest in place of metal, metal-foil inlays on the Rosewood board, and a more cost-efficient Melody Maker-style headstock shape, it’s also feasible the banjo was made for Gibson ...

Barnes & Mullins, Windsor & Taylor, Jedson and other companies strove to meet banjo demand in the years from around 1890 to 1930 – the boom years for British banjo music. Bowley Barnes and Albert Mullins established their instrument business, (which continues today), in 1894 in Bournemouth, relocating to London in 1914. Today the company is based in rural Shropshire. We believe this Barnes & Mullins ‘No. 4’ banjo is from the company’s first year of full production, in 1895, bearing the indented logo, ‘THE BARNES & MULLINS’ at the base of the neck on the 5th string side. The No 4 mo...