Custom Gibson "Bella Voce" Banjo 1927

A rare 1927 Gibson "Bella Voce" or "Beautiful Voice" hand-carved & hand-painted 5 string conversion banjo. Re-finished by Greg Rich in 1982. It has original hardware, flat head tone ring conversion (appears to be McPeak) without cutting the rim, original mute, white holly finish, gold engraved hardware, original tailpiece, original tuners except 5th string & 2nd string that has later Gibson reproduction with real pearl buttons. This instrument started out a plectrum banjo which is the same scale as a 5 string & has expert quality reproduction neck that matches the pot perfectly. Very strong & powerful in tone which is just what you would expect in a pre-war banjo. Very loud & strong delivery everywhere especially the D string. It will take over a jam session. Besides the instrument being very rare, there is one other thing that makes it even more so & that is the original brown leather hard case with zipper on the inside cover. We are told by several other banjo collectors that the only other one like it belonged to Earl Scruggs. We can say for sure that this is the only one we have ever encountered. This is one of the finest sounding banjos we have ever played. "A real serious find!"

Listed via the Reverb App