Vega Tubaphone Five String Banjo
This Vega Tubaphone was sent to me as a complete Vegaphone with a beautiful original tenor neck. The owner wanted to preserve the original instrument as much as possible but copy the original neck details making it into a five string banjo. I matched the finish of the original neck and used the original inlays. The owner had me do a couple of tweaks to the original inlays to make it a little more personalized. We swapped the Vega lettering in the peghead inlay to Tango, the town in West Virginia where they live and added in a silhouette of West Virginia in the lower part of the fingerboard. We kept all the original hardware as well as the resonator making it an excellent banjo for many different styles of playing.
- 26″ Scale Length
- 11″ Vegaphone Rim with Matching Resonator
- 1-1/4″ Nut
- Ivoroid Neck Binding
- Curly Maple Neck
- Custom and Original Vega Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Sunburst Nitrocellulous Lacquer Finish
- Modified C Shape Neck
- Stacked Vega Style Heel Cap
- Original Five Star Planetary Tuners
- Published in Banjos
1929 Vega Tubaphone Longneck Conversion Banjo
This banjo started its life in 1929 as a Vega Vegaphone tenor banjo. The new longneck was design to match the original neck in style and looks while also using some of Vega’s Pete Seeger model as influence. These old Vega rims make excellent conversions and the Tubaphone paired with the longneck scale is a perfect combination for a big deep sound. The three extra frets on the low end of the longneck add a great range of tunings and keys to play in.
- 32″ Long Scale Length
- 1929 – 10-15/16″ Vega Tubaphone Rim
- Ivoroid Neck Binding
- Mother of Pearl Star Inlays
- Gotoh Tuners
- 1-1/4″ Nut
- Sunburst Nitrocellulous Lacquer Finish
- Published in Banjos
047 – 12″ Birdseye Maple Tubaphone No. 9
This custom banjo is designed around the classic Vega Tubaphone No. 9. The engraved mother of pearl inlays, found on the original model, were simplified and replaced with tightly figured Birdseye Maple for a simplified but elegant look. The Ivoroid binding was replaced using Curly Maple. Unlike the original maple rim this rim was built using Mahogany to match the neck and extra rim depth was added.
- 12″ Mahogany Rim
- 22.25″ Scale Length
- Tubaphone Tone Ring
- 26 Hook Bracket Band
- Three Piece Mahogany Neck
- Ebony Peghead, Rim Cap and Rear Peghead Overlay
- Birdseye Maple Inlays
- Raw Brass Hardware
- Curly Maple Binding
- Published in Banjos
027 – Curly Maple Longneck Banjo
This Curly Maple Longneck banjo was designed as a variation to Seeder Banjo #010. We used an original peghead shape and a slightly red golden brown stain to highlight the exceptional curly maple figure of the neck and birdseye figure of the rim. It also features a quote chosen by the client on the head custom screen printed by a good friend and professional screen printer Andrew Stearns. The client also had the cool unique idea of using the date of the first cut I made on the wood for the banjo on the brass name plate.
- 11″ Steam Bent Birdseye Maple Rim
- 32″ Longneck Scale Length
- 1-5/16″ Nut
- Tubaphone Tone Ring
- Hand Engraved Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Mother of Pearl Side Dots
- Curly Maple Neck with Volute
- 24 Shoe Bracket Band
- Nickle Plated Hardware
- Gotoh Tuners
- Seeders Bridge
- Seeders Pyramid Heel
- Custom Screen Printed Fibersykn Head
- Published in Banjos