Part 2: Origins of the Pre-War Gibson Banjo with George Gruhn & Joe Spann

#banjo #gibsonbanjo #prewarbanjo #prewargibson
Banjo experts George Gruhn & Joe Spann recently visited one of my Cabin Camps to give a history of the Gibson pre-war flathead to my campers!
Purchase Joe's book here: amzn.to/3qeVmSh
Visit Gruhn Guitars here: guitars.com/

[@OldBanjer]

Thanks for recording this. What a resource!

[@merlynschutterle7242]

The real inventor of the HR 30 is Jim Rae, a good friend of mine. He was an engineer for Mayo Clinic. That is the reason the R stands for Rae. Jim gave me a banjo that he created with all kinds of tone woods for the rim. There is no banjo like it. Jim also has a Stelling Staghorn and a very fancy Derring that he keeps in his closet along with about 10 other banjos in his basement. He has a Fender he likes a lot. His basement is full of different wooden rims and all kinds of electronic equipment to test them. Jim still lives in Rochester Mn. He isn't in very good health now. He made 3 banjos he gave away to his friends and I was lucky enough to get one.

[@josephanderson7237]

Hahahaha!

[@josephanderson7237]

What kind of engineering work did Jim do while at Mayo?

[@hochbob]

Joe, you really know your stuff!

[@ProfileP246]

I played a Gibson golden deluxe and it blew me away.

[@marmerg]

Thanks for the amazing history lesson .....much appreciated ... but my interest is certainly, or at least for the most part , because I've been a picker and bluegrass fan for over sixty years . I believe that most human knowledge ( and opinion ) that has ever developed , has been lost to time and the friction of everyday life , and so as sad as that is , I see this with the hope that such knowledge and detail may no longer be lost . I don't much like computers but we cannot afford to continue to lose the details of history , like this gentleman has gathered , and while KZbin isn't exactly the Library of Alexandria , at least the computer offers us hope that we will now be more able to conserve past knowledge . I learned more about this subject here than I could have ever hoped to learn with any resource available to me ... anywhere ... thanks ... more ,more if you have it .

[@BanjoBen]

I agree! Check out part 3 here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGaqh3iHm9uBjJo

[@actualsurfer]

There would be some friction between the banjo skin and where it contacts the tone ring. Sound waves would use energy to overcome the coefficient of static friction to initiate micro movements. Theoretically, if the ring moved with the skin the energy would be free to vibrate the system.

[@JohnnyRebKy]

My cousin has a Gibson mastertone and that thing can shake the windows 😂. It’s LOUD. The only guitar I’ve ever had that could stand up to it was a Gibson Advanced Jumbo. Which surprises most people. A Gibson guitar? Yep. That dang banjo drowned out my D28. HD28V was a bit better. But the Advanced Jumbo was neck to neck with it 👍🏻 Sadly I lost that Gibson AJ in a house fire 3 years ago. A new one is 5k now 🤦‍♂️

[@jakesmet9426]

Really amazing, thanks for this! :-)

[@Shaw.77]

That guys full of himself

[@seanmccormick3270]

He does come across as very cocky. But he definitely knows the history of Gibson banjos

[@Shaw.77]

@@seanmccormick3270 I didn’t mean to sound like a jerk. I know he knows his stuff on banjos and Gibson.