Very EXACT Silver-Plated 1880 Buckbee replica 1ply,~100yr old steam bent rim.

Description

Please visit my
very informative web page about Theresa Vaughn,
Buckbee banjos and early Broadway. www.TheresaVaughn.com
This banjo is a VERY  exact 1880 Buckbee replica. Even the thread size and thread pitch on hooks and nuts are exact duplicates  of  what was used in 1880. It sounds EXACTLY like the original it was copied from. Completely made in USA. World wide shipping available. The banjo comes with a beautiful black canvas case lined in red velvet and closes with 4 large brass snaps. This is how Buckbee cases where made. Our cases have the exact signatures of Theresa Vaughn and John H. Buckbee Jr. embroidered on top with glossy white thread. These banjos come with my book "Theresa Vaughn and the Buckbee banjo" and  a Gold-plated Buckbee replica bronze wrench key (see images).
Some free online teaching available. 19th Century banjo, as Theresa likely played, is VERY easy and enjoyable to learn. I believe in just one hour you can easily learn to play songs from her time and also Rogers and Hammerstein tunes that came after her.. even if you are a beginner!  I see those R+H tunes to be direct descendants of Theresa's influence on Broadway in the 1890's.   The neck is of solid black walnut with a 0.025" ebony fingerboard and peg-head veneer like the originals had. Buckbee wisely kept the neck weight as light as possible. This promotes the best sound. He even incorporated a very slight back bow in the neck to resist the force from string tension. This made his necks both very light and strong. John H. Buckbee Sr. had great sensibility re. acoustics and design. His knowledge likely came from his experience building drums for the Union forces in the Civil war. 19th Century banjo, as Theresa likely played, is VERY easy and enjoyable to learn. I believe in just one hour you can easily learn to play songs from then and also Rogers and Hammerstein tunes of today... even if you are a beginner!  I see those R+H tunes to be direct descendants of Theresa's influence on Broadway in the 1890's.
Theresa transformed Broadway and theater paving the way to R+H from the earlier Appalachian and minstrel music. Theresa introduced Broadway to the banjo ( Buckbee).
A wonderful retired surgeon and lover of banjos helped me to reproduce Buckbee silver plated bronze wench keys. He carved a wood copy from photos I had and donated it to this project for casting and plating it in bronze!
The wrench key has an opening to accept a chain if you want to use it as a necklace or bracelet pendant.
The tuning pegs are made from very beautiful, translucent African water buffalo horn material. They tune like a dream. When tuning you hear and feel tiny ratchet like micro clicks. These pegs do not require "peg dope" or any such thing to make them work perfectly. Vastly better than ebony or rosewood pegs.The steam bent wood rim is made from 100 yr old growth maple "Aqua Timber". A long, long time ago maple logs fell off barges crossing the Great Lakes and sank into the cold water. This does wonders for wood ... all the soft organic material is leached out ... and only hard wood fibers remain. Divers now salvage this highly prized instrument wood because of its very resonant acoustic qualities. Our bridges are also made from this wood.  After  John H. Buckbee  and Theresa Vaughn, both passed away essentially all 20th and 21st-century banjo makers ( Fairbanks and Gibson etc. ) began making their rims from laminated plywood. Mass production was in but it had big problems with the steam bending the wood rims. Plywood rims are very dead acoustically so endless metal tone ring designs were invented and patented to try to get sound back. They got volume back but the tone was always cold, hard and metallic. Most people now are used to that kind of banjo sound and don't know what they are missing. Watch the 12 min., test video link on  my website and YouTube There I 'm playing the very first replica.. it was not yet plated or polished. I just wanted to first check the sound and fit of all parts...all was perfect,it sounded exactly like the original I have... VERY wonderful and alive. That video shows it's wonderful tone, The tone/timber is also VERY variable based on how you play it. The banjo head is of thin calfskin. The strings are light gauge steel, with a phosphor bronze wound 4th. I like to tune it in a double B tuning. It feels and sounds more relaxed.. It's the same as a double C tuning but all strings are tuned one step down. Steel strings were already in use in those days. When I researched for my books the late 19th century newspapers advertised them. These banjos are also available gold-plated for an additional fee. The original Buckbee banjos where nickel plated. Because many people have serious and dangerous allergies to nickel I decided to use silver-plating on this  Silver Ghost model. For more information you can see five interesting books I wrote about Theresa Vaughn and the Buckbee Banjo on eBay.  Also, you can see my web page and YouTube videos about Theresa Vaughn and the Buckbee banjos.