While traveling to Boston last month, the BRC founder set aside an afternoon to again visit with instrument designer, award-winning clawhammer musician, and banjo uber scholar Ed Britt. The two pickers share a common love of Ode banjos that were manufactured in Boulder, Colorado, from 1961-1966. 
Included in Ed`s marvelously extensive collection of vintage 5 stringers, and pictured below cradled gently in the BRC founder`s hands, is the ornate Muse banjo (right) featured half a century ago on the cover of the 1964 Ode banjo catalogue- held by its owner Mike Ford. This same image was pictured on the back cover of the 1963 Ode catalog.
Ed is holding a special edition Martin guitar for which he designed the elaborate mother of pearl inlay. The ornate top of this 00-45 Custom is shown in Dick Boak`s book ” Martin Guitar Masterpieces”– as a full page photo, on page 12. Ed is cited on pages 10 and 11. The pearl work was cut and inlaid by Britt`s longtime friend, Dave Nichols, of “Custom Pearl Inlay.” Dave also did the highly-figured inlay on the first Martin Custom D-45, for Neiman-Marcus, in 1979 (shown on page 11) which established a precedent for decorative high-end guitars.
Because of his encyclopedic fund of knowledge, Ed is frequently sought online as a resource and arbiter of banjo history issues, and it is fabled in chat rooms that he has forgotten more factoids about banjos than most folks have come to know. The two Ode banjo fans spent the afternoon admiring Ed`s instrument collection which, incredibly, contains the Ode banjo imprinted with inaugural Serial No. 1. As a threesome, they jammed with Ed`s masterful Scruggs-style picking pal and fellow recording artist Don Borchelt. What better way to spend an autumn afternoon in Beantown?
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