1926 Bacon Style B Tenor Banjo
1926 Bacon Style B Tenor Banjo. 1926 was a busy year on Connecticut’s Thames river for the Bacon Banjo Co. More than 3,000 banjos were produced in their factory that year. When I estimate the number of different banjos I have worked on in my life, that 3,000 is more than half and it took me 50 years to get to my conservative estimate of 5,500. This style B is a good-looking, solid banjo. When it arrived, I noticed it had an ebonized maple fretboard with a few cracks. Sure, I could have done a patch job, but replacing the original compromised fretboard with genuine ebony was the best way to go. The neck is curly maple with a mother of pearl Bacon inlay in the peghead. The previously mentioned ebony fretboard is 5/32” thick with 18 frets, dot inlay, and a comfortable to play 21-1/2” scale. The 11” diameter rim is 17/32” thick with a heavier than Vega little Wonder style tonering. 24 brackets, a Waverly tailpiece, and a curly maple resonator round out the business end of the banjo. New parts, besides the fretboard, include Graph Tech Tune-A-Lele 6-1 tuners, a bottom frosted Remo head, and a 3-leg maple bridge with ebony top. We have it set up for traditional Irish tuning and the G-string growls and the E-string cuts. A great easy to play 4-string banjo. Of course, if you are an early Jazz player, it is no problem for us to change strings and set this banjo up for C-G-D-A tuning. The price is $800 and the original well used, but solid, original hard case is included.