Vega Vox models I-IV, high end plectrum and tenor banjos, can trace their Boston beginnings back to the Jazz Age 1928 Vega catalogue. The penultimate Vega Vox V was designed for banjo wizard and consummate showman Eddie Peabody (1902-1970) in the late 1960`s.  Although the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City does not have a rare Vega Vox V, it has a Model IV donated by Peabody`s son George. The glitzy ” Vox-Ultra V” model first appeared in the 1972 Vega Martin catalogue as an end note on a back page devoted to “Special Models”. In the 1976 Nazareth, PA, product brochure, the Vox-Ultra V plectrum/tenor banjo occupied a full page with its photos and descriptor.

This flashy 4 stringer featured an engraved and hand-painted deep resonator with similar appointments on the peg head. It had a brass tone ring and engraved chrome armrest. The Vega Vox V sported a gold plated tension hoop and flanges bejeweled  with 24 rhinestones. Engraved mother of pearl inlays figured the fretboard, and still more rhinestones studded the rococo peg head.

The Vega Vox V banjo SN 130316, shown here, was manufactured 1971-72. There were only a handful of these spectacular instruments ever made, and this one was rescued from overseas in an exhausted condition in recent years.

It was returned stateside to be professionally and meticulously restored, and it is one of the few such marvelous relics extant.

Deering now owns the Vega brand and is contemplating re-introducing the Vega Vox banjo series. Vintage Vega Vox models I-IV  were manufactured in Boston for decades and not infrequently come-up for sale online. The Vox-Ultra V, however,  will remain an endangered species until Deering resurrects it. For a detailed history, click-on the above Vega Martin Banjo Info header and scroll down the mailbox to post (#26) for Dr. Ron`s extensive Comments, and the BRC thanks him for the historic details and photos.

In 1967, towards the end of the folk music revival era, C.F. Martin Co. mirthfully invented a geeky guitar endorser who they named Bobby Joe Fenster. The Vega Martin Pro-5 banjo was quietly re-deisgnated as the “Bobby Joe Fenster” model for a few years until 1972 when the tongue-in-cheek ad campaign was retired. Yellow stickers enscripted with the BJF name were adhered to the inner rim of those Pro-5 banjo pots , and these rare birds are occasionally  sighted on eBay.

Over the intervening decades, a small mythology has evolved around this humorous footnote in Martin lore. It has been suggested that comedy actor Eugene Levy, supposedly a favorite comic of the Company  vice-president, invented a skit character named Bobby Joe Fenster, and so C.F. Martin Co. adapted this imaginary persona and name for the ads. Copyright infringement notwithstanding, there is no mention of BJF on the Wikipedia page devoted to Eugene Levy or anywhere else online. In the 2003 hilarious mockumentary film “A Mighty Wind”, Levy skillfully portrays a nerdy folksinger named Mitch Cohen. This book-wormish BJF look-alike prompted some enthusiasts to muse that the Canadian actor Levy is actually the guy in the old BJF ads, despite the photographs being taken over 35 years prior to the movie.

It appears Levy is not BJF, and that there was more than one model who sat for the ad photos.

Look at these pictures and decide for yourself-

In the  Boston pre-Martin days, Vega banjos were endorsed by 5-string legends Pete Seeger, Earl Scruggs, and Sonny Osborne. Only the long-neck Pete Seeger model transitioned into the 1972 Vega Martin catalogue, and it was replaced by the No. 2 Tubaphone XL in the 1976 product list.

It was, nonetheless, a whimsical and endearing moment in the too-short Vega Martin banjo epoch. Although C.F. Martin now has over 80 special edition and signature model guitars, the only banjo endorsee established during the 1970-1979 VM era was the uniquely amusing and fictitious Bobby Joe Fenster. What other stringed instrument endorsee is so enshrined in mystery and shrouded by the mists of Time?

P.S. To learn more about one of the two above photo models, please click-on the below link and scroll way down to Comments(1).  Since this posting, the identifying data have been deleted from the below Lehigh University Digital Library graphic. Sorry (Ed.).

http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/cdm4/beyond_viewer.php?DMTHUMB=0&searchworks=cat22&ptr=014210

After visiting the BRC website in the Spring of 2015, the guy in the bottom and upper left photos graciously contacted us to confirm that the data footnoted in the above link was factual. The identity of the fellow in the upper right picture remains unknown. Let`s hope that he visits the BRC website someday, and we will hear from him. Barry