From the BRC Mailbox:
Dear M.C.: Thank you for the prompt photos of your Vega Martin Tu-Ba-Phone long neck banjo with serial number 1811 manufactured per Shop Order 2339. This instrument was built in Nazareth, PA, in 1977 which was a year that C.F. Martin experienced a difficult luthier strike. The Company`s banjo enterprise began to wind-down in 1976 when V45-5, V41-5, and FW-5 models were shipped to Japan for assembly. Soon thereafter, VW-5 parts were transported to Canada for the same purpose, and serial numbers began to become undependable.
The first long neck Tu-Ba-Phone or T2XL with serial number 1607 was produced in early 1976, and this model appears in the 1976 VM catalogue. The last T2XL with serial number 1915 was built in 1977. The banjo shop logbook ends with serial number 1945. The very last banjo manufactured in Nazareth by C.F. Martin was a 4-string Vega Vox IV assigned serial number 1969, and it was accompanied by an official letter of authentication by Martin’s first historian Mike Longworth.
With appreciation, Barry
Folks in the Show-Me State respond to fickle weather changes by intoning a remark attributed to favorite son Mark Twain: If you don’t like the weather in Missouri, wait five minutes. One day earlier this month, frosty February temperatures surprisingly climbed to 55 degrees. Our Wednesday afternoon outdoor jam session, on winter-pause since Thanksgiving, promptly mobilized for a fresh air picking session on the steps of the local church where our gals sing in the choir.
Under the bluest of skies, we musicians picked and sang Bluegrass standards while warmed by a blazing winter sun. The next day, our environs were bitterly swept by a wind-whipped snowfall, and the overnight temperature on the following evening dropped to 9 degrees. A glacial polar vortex soon followed. Hopefully, however, our afternoon in the sunshine foretells that springtime is somewhere just around the corner.
From the BRC: be safe, be well, and “…keep on the sunny side of life. “
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