I was lucky enough to learn how to play three finger banjo on my grandfather’s 1963 Gibson RB-250 and it’s always a please to get to have some of its bow tie clad brethren pass through. This is a marvelous banjo and a great example of why these are held in high regard.
As typical of these, the banjo has a sunburst mahogany neck and resonator. I recently had the extremely talented Andy Fitsgibbon do a refret on it with taller wire than the short frets these originally came with. The peghead has holes from previously installed D-Tuners, which well could have been factory.
The original nickel plated 19 hole Cooper tonering is one of my favorites, and this banjo has their trade mark “wub-wub” sound in spades. This desirable tonering is mounted on a full thickness chocolate brown maple rim.
The weirdest thing about this banjo is the flange. It appears to be chrome plated. Gibson would mix gold and nickel plated parts on the same banjo in the sixties, but I’m not sure if this flange left Kalamazoo on this rim.
No less, a marvelous, iconic classic banjo at the cost of a quality modern one. I will miss this one.
Comes shipped in the original Lifton hard shell case. Thanks for looking and please reach out with any questions.
