First built for the late Bill Emerson in late 1989 and moving into the production catalog in 1990, the Stelling Red Fox quickly became one of Stelling’s most popular models. Sporting a gloss finish with red stained, highly flamed Maple, and with Abalone inlays of leaves and a Red Fox, this is a very attractive and great sounding instrument.
Banjo
Here we have a Vega FW5 Folk Wonder, factory converted as new to a Vega Senator. At the time this banjo was built, the Vega name and facilities were owned by the C F Martin guitar company, and a few years later Martin built some higher end Vega banjos in Nazareth PA. The Vega name is now owned by the Deering company, who manufacture excellent Vega models.
The Nechville Leon Hunt Phantom Model, while not a ‘formal’ Nechville model, is based on the Nechville Phantom XXV (Phantom 25). It uses all the Nechville Phantom elements plus very highly figured maple for the neck and resonator (rather than the stock figured walnut construction), with a slight amber tint to the finish. These spectacular banjos are based closely on the Nechville banjo made for Leon Hunt.
This Stelling Golden Cross Open Back banjo was originally a resonator model but was converted to open-back by Geoff Stelling. As with other Golden Cross banjos, the neck and rim are Maple, with Ebony for the fingerboard; inlays and the truss rod cover are Mother of Pearl. This is a very attractive instrument!
The Deering Clawgrass No.2 Banjo model was created when Mark Johnson approached Deering with one vision in mind – to offer the same solid foundation, quality, tone and playability of his original, but at a more affordable price point.
The Nechville Midnight Phantom Standard 5-string banjo offers all of the quality and technical advances of Tom Nechville’s designs, with subtle decoration. “Standard” isn’t really an official Nechville designation; we use it as many of the instruments we receive from them have custom features. You can read our post on the Midnight Phantom Custom here.