New Not-Guitar Day!!! (OT)

[Muddslide]

Well, I've been jonesing for a tenor banjo for a couple of years now.

 

I have some problems with my wrists and hands so for the past few months I've been playing a lot more on my ukuleles than my 6-string acoustic. I miss it, but I just get too much pain after a half hour or so of playing.

 

I also scored a tenor guitar a couple of months ago which I've been messing with in the "original" tenor tuning of CGDA. It's easier on the fingers and hands for me, tough again I am missing those bass strings.

 

So, my father (a jazz trombone player) was up visiting with his wife a couple of weeks ago and I mentioned to him how I wanted to take up tenor banjo (I played 5-string bluegrass banjo for several years, but stopped about 10 years back.)

 

Anyway, turns out he had one. He had wanted to take up the tenor too, learn some Dixieland on it. He said "I would like to get a pilot's license too, but neither thing is going to happen. Let me send you that banjo. It's just sitting in my office and it's nothing fancy."

 

Well, earlier this week I received it. Sheesh! It's a beauty! I'd never heard of the brand name so I investigated a little bit. Turns out "Kel Kroydon" was a name Gibson used around the Depression era. They made banjos and other acoustic instruments under this name in the early 1930s, using all Gibson parts but with a different name for selling at Wooworth's, Montgomery Ward, Sears, etc.

 

This bano (model KK-11) was so popular and well thought of, it eventually became a regular Gibson model (the TB-11) made the same way with the same parts, just under the Gibson name.

 

The 5-string versions of this banjo are among the most sought-after pre-war banjos out there.

 

Anyway, it's a beauty and has a brand new head and the original hardshell case.

 

Here's a link to some pics of another Kel Kroydon KK-11. Mine looks identical (even has paint worn off the neck in the same place) except the head on mine is transparent and instead of the "blue burst" to the mother of toilet seat, mine has a touch of brown.

 

It's a beauty. Me happy.

 

http://www.turtlehillbanjo.com/images/Gibson/Gallery_KelKroydon_KK11.html

 

Thanks for listening. I now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.

[Muddslide]

Congrats!!! The KK is a great banjo from what I hear. I'm sure you can get some mileage out of this here: http://www.banjohangout.org/ I just ordered a Deering Boston...I've never played one before.

 

 

Whoa. Hellll-ooooh Weleetka. Tulsa was my old stomping grounds. Hung out in Henryetta many a time.

 

Good luck with your 'jo!

[happy-man]

Congratulations. Happy Banjo. My wife was considering learning banjo and I was at one time looking around for one to get her. She had a fear though that I'd start using it and that she'd get discouraged if she didn't learn as fast as me.

Scott O

[guitarist21]

Very awesome. Join the club of People Who Have Acquired Cool Old Tenor Banjos From Relatives Who Don't Need Them Anymore (PWHACOTBFRWDNTA). I think its just you and me right now.

 

Ellen

[geek_usa]

deeeeeeerkadeeeeeeeeerrrrrrwwww

[mikesr1963]

[Terry Allan Hall]

That's entirely too cool!