Prewar Gibson banjo

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The prewar Gibson Mastertone banjo is the most sought-after vintage instrument for bluegrass banjo players.

Terminology

Although this term normally refers to World War II, when used to describe Gibson banjos the term prewar operationally refers to banjos made prior to 1947. Production of metal banjo parts was suspended during World War II. However, small numbers of Gibson banjos continued to be constructed and shipped during the war years using stocks of metal parts remaining in factory bins. For that reason, Gibson banjos produced between 1940 and 1945 often reflect creativity of shop personnel rather than standard catalog descriptions. Production of metal banjo parts resumed in the Fall of 1946; however it is commonly believed that the metal composition of foundry products delivered to Gibson after World War II was notably inferior to that of parts produced prior to 1940. On April 12, 1947 the Gibson Instrument Company changed their corporate logo from script lettering to use of block letters and this change occurred sufficiently close to resumption of banjo output to allow easy identification of prewar and postwar Gibson instruments.

Identifying a prewar Gibson banjo

Determining the authenticity of a prewar Gibson banjo can be a real challenge, for a variety of reasons:

The Gibson company produced a fairly wide variety of styles.
The actual number of authentic banjos is relatively small, so the experience of examining and playing them is limited to comparatively few individuals.
Demand for these instruments is high, which has led to significant efforts toward reproducing them, with varying degrees of skill.
The majority of these banjos have been transformed in some way by their owners over the years, due to the adjustability of the components, changes in playing style, etc.

External links

There are several web sites with great information about prewar Gibson banjos:

[Greg Earnest's site] contains a nice overview of the various styles, with many photographs of vintage banjos.
[Tom Bigg's site] is useful for looking up serial numbers of banjos.

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