Here’s something special – a century old C F Martin Style 1 Soprano ukulele, built during the uke’s first rise in popularity. Eventually, the Ukulele became so popular that Martin had to expand their production facility. The Ukulele started to gain attention in the early years of the 20th century, and C F Martin made a few examples around 1906. However, these were built more like guitars and the relatively heavy bracing did not work well. In 1916, the company launched a new version with traditionally lighter construction and these were well received.
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Just in time for Canada Day, here’s an 1895 R S Williams and Son Echo Style 15 Open Back Banjo strung with nylon, built in Oshawa, Ontario. To the Depression era, R S Williams was a prominent manufacturer of instruments, including pianos, guitars, banjos, mandolins and violins.
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For quite some time, Gibson banjos were standard professional grade instruments, and the Gibson TB-250 was their ‘entry level’ tenor banjo. From 1966 it was available as a MasterTone model with that tone ring. This model was built from 1954 to 1996.
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Here’s a treat – a Washburn Soprano Ukulele, built by Lyon & Healy during the 1920s in Chicago, Illinois and in very nice condition with the original canvas trap-door case. As to Lyon and Healy, towards the end of the 1970’s, the Steinway company purchased Lyon & Healy, spinning off their other efforts to focus on building quality harps. This Washburn Soprano ukulele is built with a mixture of Mahogany for the body and bridge, Spanish Cedar for the neck, Rosewood for the fingerboard and small pieces of Ebony for the nut and saddle. The top, back and soundhole are bound with a grained ivoroid celluloid.
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Here we’re looking at a wonderfully preserved Gibson RB-18 Mastertone ‘Top Tension’ 5-string banjo, with its gold plating unworn and the finish lightly checked from age. From the serial number, it appears to have been produced during June of 1996. The number breaks down as ‘RB’ for Regular Banjo – i.e. 5-string – ’18’ for the style, followed by two digits for the year (96) and two for the month (06). The last group of digits, a single number 7 in this case, is the production number for that model in that date period.
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