| CHARLES Z FISH'S PRE-WAR GIBSON BANJOS |
| TB-4 WITH 5-STRING NECK |
| This 1927 Gibson Mastertone tenor with a 5-string replica neck is a style 4. |
| The serial number (8751-24) has been painted inside the resonator, presumably on top of the original chalk inscription made in the factory. |
| It is also stamped inside the rim. |
| Style 4 was the top of the standard (not engraved, gold-plated, or carved) line of Gibson banjos. It features a mahogany neck and resonator, and the resonator is double bound. The hardware is nickel plated. In 1929, plating of the style 4's was changed to chrome. The fingerboard is Brazilian rosewood. |
| This instrument has a solid archtop tone ring. |
| The mother of pearl inlay on the original tenor neck is a hearts-and-flowers design. The peghead is fiddle-shaped, and the headstock has a dark stained finish. The mother of pearl inlay on the peghead features the Gibson logo, curlicues, flowers and wreaths. |
| There is a thin black strip in the white binding on the sides of the fingerboard, and there is a laminated white-black-white heel cap. |
| The replica 5-string neck was made specifically for this instrument by Wyatt Fawley. It differs slightly from the original 5-string hearts-and-flowers necks, which did not have inlays at the first and fifteenth frets, as this one does. Fawley writes, "The Mastertone block is hand engraved, not done on a pantograph, as most builders are using. The scale length is the correct 26 3/8 inches used on Gibson (5-string) banjos made prior to World War II, and the neck length allows for exact placement of the bridge as per original pre-war banjos, a point most commonly overlooked in the conversion of these banjos. The truss rod is the new 'hot rod' style, 2-way rod, which allows for correction of either forward bow or backward bow. The nutwork is executed in real bone...no plastic stuff here...ever." |
| The peghead of the 5-string conversion replicates the tenor. The original tenor neck has donated its Grover tuners to the conversion. |
| This banjo has a a 2-piece, or tube-and-plate, flange. The rim is 4-ply, with a machined lip to secure the tube. "24" is stamped on the rim where it joins the neck. |
| Gibson engineers devoted considerable attention to the design and development of the tone chambers that sat on top of the wood rim and which were designed to enhance the vibrations of the skin head. The modified ball bearing tone chamber on the 1925 TB-3 on this website, with a round rod brazed to the hollow tone tube, provided two contact points with the head, giving it an "arch top" profile. In 1927, Gibson introduced its first cast tone chamber, replacing the hollow ring, springs and ball bearings with a U-shaped ring. It supported the head in the same arch-top manner as the modified ball bearing and is now known as the archtop tone ring. In most archtops the inside circumference of the tone ring was drilled with 40 holes. This 1927 TB-4 has the less common solid archtop ring. |
| The edge of the head has a beveled appearance, reflecting the archtop tone ring. |
| The notched stretcher band made its appearance in 1927, replacing the grooved stretcher band, or tension hoop. In this model it is made of solid brass. "E2" is stamped on the inside of the tension hoop. It is secured with round hooks that have straight-sided hexagonal nuts. |
| There are two purfling rings on the back of the resonator. |
