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Vega Martin Stories

Vega Martin Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe: Lost Treasure or Missing Link?

January 9, 2016

After the difficult 1977 luthier strike at C. F. Martin Co., the corporate enthusiasm for manufacturing banjos sharply declined. Parts were soon shipped from Nazareth, PA, to Canada or Japan for assembly, and record keeping of serial numbers slid into disarray. Despite this unfavorable marketing climate, the Martin Company launched a top of the line Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe resonator banjo series in 1978 based on the unique tone ring designed by Vega in 1909.photo - Version 3

A few standard open back and long neck Tu-Ba-Phone 5-stringers were manufactured in 1976 with properly recorded serial numbers, but the logbook soon ended with #1945. The very last banjo built at the Nazareth factory was #1969 as documented with a Letter of Authenticity by Martin historian Mike Longworth. But, what about the missing 23 other banjos bearing #1946 through #1968? The BRC has received information on only one Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe, but its serial number was a duplicate and spurious. Inside its resonator, however, it bore the C.F. Martin logo- a very distinctive and unique marking  (click to enlarge).imageIf any reader has information on a Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe 5-stringer or any C.F. Martin banjo bearing a serial number between #1946-1968, let us know via our Vega Martin Banjo Info mailbox. We would be delighted to hear from you.

P.S. After Martin sold the Vega line overseas in 1979, Deering purchased the Vega brand name rights in 1989 and now offers an open back Vega #2 Banjo featuring the classic tubaphone tone ring.

G&F Band, G&F Singers

Winter Gigs Herald the Coming New Year

December 26, 2015

For almost a decade, the BRC founder`s band has performed Holiday songfests for the staff and in-patients on the children`s and adult psychiatric wards of the University Hospital.FullSizeRender

This gig is preceded one week by a Trio of vocalists from the band performing for families at the nearby Children`s Hospital and at the patients` bedsides on the pediatric ward.photo - Version 2

 

 

These two performances are favorite annual highlights for the band members, as we close-out our musical calendar for the year. We are privileged to entertain these special and grateful audiences. The BRC wishes all it readers a Healthy and Prosperous 2016.

Cell Perches & HVO

Happy Holidays from the BRC

December 2, 2015

The BRC family extends its warmest Holiday Greetings to our faithful readership and Best Wishes in the coming New Year. The mission of our Missouri workshop is to repair and restore damaged or neglected banjos and then sell them online as entry level instruments at bargain basement prices. What could be more fun?

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Other features of the website include a welcoming introductory  `about us` header, a seldom visited store, our pantheon Hall of Fame (mostly the BRC founder`s best pickin` buddies), and a busy Info column for aficionados of the coveted Vega Martin banjos manufactured in the 1970`s in Nazareth, PA. Could anything be more fun? Above are pictured the BRC founder and spouse, our Executive Committee and Board of Directors, and their parents all reunited while vacationing in the Lone Star State.

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P.S. Did you ever wonder what ole St. Nick does with his spare time during the off-Season?

 

Check out the BRC `Peace Dove` banjo on ebay Dec. 11-18.

Bio

A Time of Thanks and Remembrance

November 18, 2015

To Fete a Feat of Feet

As the BRC founder and spouse ready to travel to The Lone Star State for a Thanksgiving weekend with the grandkids, there is a long list of things big and small for which to be thankful:  Family, friends, fellow musicians, and our appreciative audiences who generously donate to the Children`s Hospital. A recent and frequent addition to our Sunday afternoon benefit gigs is a young lady who jumps up on the stage and dances her heart out for the audiences who then loosen their pursestrings to donate eagerly to the Children`s Miracle Network.lua

 

The band calls her “Dancing Girl”, and her mother tells us that the little whirlwind has no formal training in her footwork.  Check-out and enjoy the below video link (IMG 0029) and decide for yourself whether this prancing little lady is Irish step dancing or clogging- or both. Thank you, Dancing Girl!

IMG_0029            (Ed.) Kiddo`s a natural…

 

A Legend Remembered

Last month, a giant in the Bluegrass world passed away, and the banjo community worldwide respectfully remembers Bill Keith as an innovative genius and craftsman. A friendly and unassuming guy, Keith was a pioneer in developing the ground breaking melodic style of picking the 5-string which increased the vocabulary of the banjo manifold. He brilliantly designed the inboard D-tuner pegs which bear his name.

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In this 1963 photo, a young Bill Keith is holding a classic archtop bow tie inlay Gibson Mastertone. The brother of the BRC founder purchased an identical vintage banjo in 1963 and generously gave it to the BRC founder 20 years ago, and it still delivers the volume and timbre to power-through a bluegrass band in full flight.


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Keith not infrequently lectured on the harmonic mathematics of Bluegrass music and is pictured here with the BRC founder who attended one of these insightful and fascinating seminars at a banjo camp several years ago.

Farewell Bill,  and thank-you for all you taught us.

 

BRC Activities

Banjotropolis Update

November 1, 2015

Living in far flung corners of the US, the BRC Executive Committee held its annual meeting by conference call  this year to avoid travel expenses. Old Business included analyzing the perennial financial shortfalls of the workshop which operates at a deficit of $125 per month.

From Texas, the CFO predicted the fiscal future of the enterprise as foggy, and no fiduciary strategies were promulgated to rectify the chronically negative revenue stream.  The Senior Vice-President of Sales moved to refer this thorny agenda item to a subcommittee , and the ex officio member from the Board of Directors volunteered to chair the subcommittee. The motion was so amended and approved .C&C

Under New Business, our CEO in Chicago updated the Committee on his utopian “Banjotropolis”” societal vision for a futuristic City on the Hill. He offered his own recent photo documenting that banjo graffiti was beginning to appear on street light utility boxes on Main Street, Hometown, USA.jjSt.

 

 

 

 

 

During the subsequent hot chocolate break, the CEO performed a song for the Committee that he penned to celebrate his magnum opus and its emerging art form heralding a banjo culture as alluded to in his first  BRC website post of May 08, 2011 (for song video click IMG 7611 link).

IMG_7611             (Ed.) Impressive….

In his report on Research and Development, our Director of R&D in Missouri encouraged all members of the Committee to closely reevaluate the clawhammer style of picking the banjo, as a studied assessment  of this technique had stirred his thinking in new directions of growth.

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He confessed that his imagination was so fired by this focused  examination of frailing, that he even dreams now of banjos at nap time and wakes up marvelously  refreshed.rorocrib2

 

 

 

 

As there was no other business, the meeting was adjourned by acclamation. While the Executive Committee officers returned to their respective family circles to prepare for Thanksgiving, the ex officio Board member closely studied clawhammering as recommended by her cousin (click below trim2 video link).

P.S. trim2             (Ed.) Kid can flog those strings…….

P.S. Check out the BRC “Peace Dove” banjo on eBay Nov. 1-7.