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Family Tree and a New Year

January 1, 2022

The BRC craftsman and his son have enjoyed playing the blues, folk music, and Bluegrass together for decades. A self-taught musician like his dad, the youngster conquered the guitar, bass, and cello in high school and won awards for his expertise. He coached his father how to play the bass. The twosome performed gigs together regularly until the younger man departed his Missouri home for college, law school, and a busy legal career in the faraway Lone Star State. In the below archival photo taken at a sunny Earth Day festival in nearby Peace Park circa 1995, the BRC founder is picking mandolin while his son (far right) plays rhythm guitar.

Nowadays, the twosome reunite a couple of times each year on holidays or when the grandkids are competing in soccer tournaments. These weekends allow the father and son to revisit the music that they shared decades ago.

Recently, a granddaughter has been cultivating interest in stringed instruments and singing in her school choir. She will be a 4th generation musician in our family tree, as her great grandfather played accordion to accompany great grandma who sang full-throated ragtime era classics more than half-century ago in the BRC founder`s boyhood home.

From the BRC: All the Best in the New Year. Be safe, be well, get the booster.

BRC Activities

Best to You this Season

December 18, 2021

The BRC workshop has been busy supplying 5-stringers to Holiday gift givers for delivery near and far.Maybe, Santa has a banjo planned for someone special on your shopping list?

Have a wonderful Holiday, and keep on pickin`.

From the BRC: We wish you Peace this Season and Good Health in the New Year. 

Art Shows, Jamming

Holidays Draw Near

December 4, 2021

After an hiatus of 18 pandemic months, our mid week jam session returned to giving bimonthly performances at a nearby nursing home nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks. We were stationed in the lobby in front of a glowing fireplace which was surmounted by a TV screen while the clients viewed us from afar. The audience especially enjoyed the classic country tunes  of yesteryear and old-time gospel sing alongs.

With the arrival of the Holiday Season, the local art league in our university town had its annual “Gift of Art” exhibit. The BRC craftsman fashioned a “Unikorn” banjo for the winter show.

Instead of traditional mother of pearl inlays decorating the 5-stringer, the inlays were made of birch. As always, there was a signature BRC inlay on the heel of the banjo for the eyes only of the musician.

At the gala evening Gift of Art reception, gallery visitors closely studied the “Unikorn” which was hung amidst oil and water color paintings. One couple fondly pointed-out that they had purchased a BRC banjo at a previous holiday exhibit in years past and had gifted it to their daughter who was quite pleased playing her instrument. A mother inquired with the BRC craftsman if another  “Baroque Bur Oak” type 5-stringer (see posting of June 5, 2021, or enter “baroque” in the homepage search engine) could be fashioned for her son.  As all BRC banjos are generally one-of-a-kind instruments, thematic alterations were mutually agreed upon for her son`s “Bur Oak II” banjo which is currently under construction.

From the BRC: Have a happy and healthy Holiday Season.

Art Shows, G&F Band

Back at the Brewpub

November 20, 2021
The G&F band began performing weekly gigs at the family-friendly Broadway Brewery in 2009 and donating all tips to the Children`s Hospital. With the Covid plague blanketing the globe last year, the musicians were driven from the stage on the Ides of March 2020. Jam sessions were thereafter conducted at the BRC bandleader`s home for well over a year. In mid-May of 2021, the pickers ventured back onto the brewpub stage and were welcomed by the entertainment-starved customers who longed for signs of normalcy. By late August, however, a surging delta viral variant caused the band members to retreat once more from the venue.
     With the recent availability of vaccine boosters and seasonal flu shots, the G&F band has again returned its music to the Brewery during the Sunday brunch hours. Our percussionist nicknamed Bones, a showman and audience favorite, happily holds his rhythm instruments aloft.
  
 In the meantime, we await a foreseeable future when hopefully the G&F Singers can again serenade kids and families at the Children`s Hospital, and the band can perform on the psychiatric ward of the university hospital during the Holidays. Time will tell, but we remain optimistic. We wish you renewed optimism and good times ahead, too.
Recently, the BRC craftsman donated a banjo to the yearly Columbia Art League fundraiser exhibit. At the “Patron`s Party” reception, he puzzled and amused potential buyers by counseling them that each BRC banjo had a threefold purpose. It was first and foremost a musical instrument. Secondly, in an energy crisis, it can be used as firewood. Lastly, in the event of civil unrest, it may have utility in home defense. Amidst a gallery filled with 76 paintings, sculptures, and multi-media works, the “Autumn Leaves” 5-stringer was the second item promptly sold in the gala evening affair.                                                               
                                         
From the BRC: Be well and have a restful Thanksgiving weekend.
Vega Martin Stories

Last of a Long Line

November 6, 2021

S.P. says:
Autumn, 2021

I have a Martin Vega Vox I with serial number 1965. Does this place it as the last in the series ending with the Vox V serial number 1969??
This banjo appears to never have been played. Reportedly it had rested in a closet for years ( since 1978??)
Are there valued characteristics in the Vox line ?? Thanks for any information.

 

BRC replies:

S.P.:  My Vega Vox consultant Dr. Ron has been studying the history of your banjo, but we need some photos to clarify its story. Please send me some detailed photos of the instrument inside and out to help determine its features. Thanks from the BRC, Barry

 

Dr. Ron says:

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you, as I was trying to do some additional research on this subject. I had some conflicting serial number information in my files on the two Vega Vox V’s. The entire serial number range for all Vega banjos built by C. F. Martin in Nazareth and Canada in the year 1979 was: #1946 to #1969. Despite the fact that there were more Vega Vox V shop orders on the list in the post 1977 strike period, the only following Vega Vox-Ultra V models (all plectrums) were completed: #1800; 1946; 1947; 1950; and 1964. Two additional Vega Vox V’s were never completed (#1949 and #1951).The very last of the Martin-Vega banjos (#1969) from Nazareth/Canada was also a Vega Vox (thus ending a 52-year production run of that model).

So, this Vega Vox I is most likely correct and all original as #1965. It looks in great shape other than the peghead blemishes (hopefully, the original tailpiece is intact and not cracked). Even the case was standard Martin issue at the time.

After 1979, Martin-Vega models (Tubaphone #7 replicas, not Voxes) were made in Asia, until Galaxy Trading of S. Korea took over the brand. Galaxy resurrected the Vega Vox I model briefly before going into bankruptcy shortly thereafter, but these are distinctively different in using rounded flange holes, non-standard Vega fingerboard inlays, and a primitive Tubaphone tone ring with 5 or 6 large holes (not the original 30 hole, slotted or dog-bone/barbell design as seen in the top photo).

Hope this helps, and all the best to you, Dr. Ron

 

S.P. replies:

Thank you very much, Barry! More than I had hoped! Please thank Dr. Ron, too. Cheers!