its a fairbanks cole made in the early 1880/s. very similar to a ss stewart with the maple rim and ovwer lay copper nickel overlay. the neck is cherry as most were in those days. very straight with no bow in it. when i took the neck off the rim i saw their was a slim metal bar under the fret board what was very advanced for those days. thats why the neck had no bow in it at all. i cleaned a polished the rim, super glued any cracks. im not gpoing to keep with tradition and make it into a modern 5 string banjo. it will have a modern 11 and 3/8s head. no calve skin head. it will have modern stronger hooks and hook holders. it will have a sterner modern tail piece. it will have 12 to 1 or 14 to one tuners on the peg head as well as the fifth string tuning peg. it will have a carbon graphite bridge and a rose wood harmonic tone enhancer behind the carbon bridge. it will sound loud and very very clear and good for any style of playing. it has in good shape mandolin style frets that will remain on the fingerboard. im going to have to replace all the lost mother of pearl inlays but that is a slow but easy job. it will become my main squeeze as it is loud and light weight and my blue grass banjo is heavy and medium loud. it was God sent and i will make it better than it was ever ment to be. the first song i will play on it is train 45 which is my most favorite one of all. i play it in g tuneing instead of d tuneing but it sounds like d tuneing which is a better tuneing for that song. go to you tube and see bill monroe/s train 45 by his back up band. i frail it instead of finger pick it but i make it sound like theirs. its called the high lonesome graveyard sound. i frail like doc watson did, simple and hard driving. if you think a white man cant do deep soul music you havent listened to the high grave yard lonesome sound. it will curl your spine in a knot.
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