? for S. Gambrell re: Gibson RB-250's

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 28 Sep 2008 1:39 pm

Hello Stephen,

I a recent thread I now can't find, you made a cryptic comment about bow-tie inlayed banjos which I wish I understood.
Could you elaborate on that a bit ? I'd like to know more about it.
Thanks,
-John

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 28 Sep 2008 2:10 pm

Hey, John,
Talk about cryptic??? I have no idea what you're talking about, although the bow-ties were some of the worst banjos that Gibson ever made.

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 28 Sep 2008 2:21 pm

Hi Stephen,
Ok, that must have been it. I can't find the thread now.
Most of the pics of bow-tie inlayed banjos I've seen seem to be of 50's vintage - I assume that's when they were manufactured. Are they too light ? Poor sounding ? Poorly manufactured ?
Thanks,
-John
p.s. Aha... found it- not really cryptic at all.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ght=gibson

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 28 Sep 2008 6:25 pm

Tone rings were pitiful, they were poorly made---Kinda like 3-bolt Fenders from the 70's. Some are OK, but most are poor imitations.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 28 Sep 2008 7:46 pm

I think I remember reading somewhere that it was the bowties from the 70's that were the poorly constructed ones.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 29 Sep 2008 1:17 am

The biggest confusion on old Bowtie's is that they made difference models, but they all looked the same(except the 100 & 170 just had dot inlays, but same "Flyswatter" headstock).
They were in production from 1949 till 1979, and were available in the 100 Model, 150 Model, 170 Model, 175 Model, 180 Model, 250 Model, 500 Model, and the 800 Model. Those were all available in TB(Tenor Banjo), PB(Plectrum Banjo), and RB(Regular Banjo).

The 100's and 150's just had a brass tone hoop not a tone ring. Now the RB-250's from '54 till '65 had a nice heavy brass tone ring, and are some really nice banjo's. The archtop ones built in the late '50s are just monsters. Great for that Allen Shelton tone, which is what he always played. Roni Stoneman played a '61 RB-250 and I think she still does. For a while Earl played a Bowtie, well sort of. In the late '50s he sent his '34 Granada to Gibson for some work. So the folks at Gibson put a brand new fret board on it with their "Bowtie" inlays.

In 1974 Gibson more than doubled the production of the RB-250, from about 300 to over 800, then again in '75 to almost 2000. That's when quality really dropped. From '74 through '79 they just were mostly junk. It does make it easy to tell when "Dueling Banjos" was a hit.