Vega Fairbanks Tubaphone 1926

One of the very coolest open-back banjos we’ve seen in years. The rim is a classic 11” Vega-Fairbanks Tu-Ba-Phone  (actually 10-15/16”, what they always did and I’ll never be able to figure out why) from the 1920s with loud, deep tones yet somehow amazingly crisp and clear-sounding, all at the same time. The vast majority of these from the 1920s were made as four-string tenors, with five-sring necks installed on many of them during the folk boom of the 1960s, which is what this appears to be. And what a five-string neck! All features of it point to either a much earlier original (mahogany!) Fairbanks neck or the most perfect replica ever. I’ve had and seen a lot of these banjos in my sixty years in this business and I’m both stumped and thrilled to the end with this one. The mother-of-pearl fingerboard and peghead inlays are hand-engraved in that unique, fabulous, early Consalvo style and if there’s anyone today who can duplicate that so perfectly I’d love to know who it is.