Up for sale is a bona fide Gibson masterclone banjo, the Epiphone by Gibson MB-100.
reverb.com/item/19201483-epiph...979-banjo
In the 1970's when bluegrass had become popular, there was a race to create the ultimate copy of the ultimate banjo: the Gibson RB-250. Listed at about $1300 (with case) in 1979, that was out of the reach of many.
As a result, companies like Alvarez, Iida and GTR all converged on the same factory in Japan to build them a more affordable (but still sounding awesome) alternative. Thus the masterclone was born. They were able to cut costs by using zinc tonerings (Gibson has bell brass), 5-12 ply rims (Gibson had 3 ply maple rims) and chrome plated hardware (Gibson had nickel).
Gibson had to get in on the action that was chipping away at their market dominance, so they created the Epiphone by Gibson MB-100 and MB-250 banjos.
Although lacking the ultimate power (and pricetag) of a RB-250, they sound strong, have planetary tuners, a geared 5th string peg and well-made hardware.
