Vega Martin Stories

From the BRC Mailbox:

Dear Reader- Thank you for sharing the detailed photographs of your mint-condition Vega Martin V-76 banjo and its documents. This model of a commemorative 5-stringer and its matching D-76 guitar celebrated the US Bicentennial year of 1976 and represented C.F. Martin`s first foray into a limited edition series. The company planned to manufacture a total of seventy-six V-76 banjos as well as 1,976 issues of the D-76 guitar.

The outer rim of the banjo resonator had a unique strip of herring bone marquetry, and there were thirteen mother of pearl (MOP) stars on the fretboard representing the original 13 colonies. Engraved on the tailpiece and truss rod cover was the number “76.”

There was a MOP eagle on the peg head, and also on the back of the resonator. A commemorative brass plaque with the owner`s name and special Bicentennial production number of the banjo (#53 in your case) was placed on the back of the headstock, and these data were entered into the Martin Archives.

Your banjo with its factory serial number 1577, located on the interior of the rim, was one of a lot of sixty V-76 banjos built in early 1976 per Shop Order 2287 in Nazareth, PA. According to the Shop log book, a total of eighty-one V-76 instruments were ultimately made, as well as an additional seven V-76E banjos designated for employees only.

C.F. Martin overestimated the market for the V-76 and D-76 instruments, and both were overpriced. This eventuated in an unsold inventory for the factory and its distributors. My spouse reflects that the marketplace was likely still clouded by the turmoil of the recent Vietnam Conflict. Having served active duty military in the late 1970`s, I proffer that this theory may well be explanatory. The Martin Company was thereafter wary to venture into limited edition series for years. C. F. Martin did not publish its suggested retail prices after 1971, so the original price tag on the V-76 is not readily known. At this writing, the factory is currently shuttered because of the pandemic, and maybe you could email them after they reopen to ask if their Archives might shed any light on the 1976 pricing data for the V-76 banjo.

Because of the pristine condition and thorough documentation of your instrument, my estimate is that its current worth in about $1.7K. Hope this helps.

From the BRC: Be safe, be well, and be picking this holiday weekend, and be thankful to our service men and women.

After the difficult 1977 luthier strike at C. F. Martin Co., the corporate enthusiasm for manufacturing banjos sharply declined. Parts were soon shipped from Nazareth, PA, to Canada or Japan for assembly, and record keeping of serial numbers slid into disarray. Despite this unfavorable marketing climate, the Martin Company launched a top of the line Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe resonator banjo series in 1978 based on the unique tone ring designed by Vega in 1909.

A few standard open back and long neck Tu-Ba-Phone 5-stringers were manufactured in 1976 with properly recorded serial numbers, but the logbook soon ended with #1945. The very last banjo built at the Nazareth factory was #1969 as documented with a Letter of Authenticity by Martin historian Mike Longworth. But, what about the missing 23 other banjos bearing #1946 through #1968? The BRC has received information on only one Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe, but its serial number was a duplicate and spurious. Inside its resonator, however, it bore the C.F. Martin logo- a very distinctive and unique marking  (click to enlarge).If any reader has information on a Tu-Ba-Phone Deluxe 5-stringer or any C.F. Martin banjo bearing a serial number between #1946-1968, let us know via our Vega Martin Banjo Info mailbox. We would be delighted to hear from you.

P.S. After Martin sold the Vega line overseas in 1979, Deering purchased the Vega brand name rights in 1989 and now offers an open back Vega #2 Banjo featuring the classic tubaphone tone ring.

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