A Bacon "FF" "Special Grand Concert" Tenor Banjo

Photos courtesy of Wyatt Fawley, owner of the Banjo Loft of Greensboro, PA. The Banjo Loft creates premium quality five string completed conversion instruments or unfinished necks, specializing in those for the various Vega brand models.

• Overall View
• Back view
• Peghead Reverse
• Heel Carving
• Internal Resonator

A B&D "Super" Tenor Banjo

Built in 1928 by the Bacon Banjo Company of Groton, CT. USA.

She gets sweeter as the years go by ...

• The Peghead - Is adorned with delicate mother of pearl scrollwork.
  The shape of the peghead seems to have been used by B&D until around 1929.
• The Back - The neck is of tiger stripe maple and the resonator has light colored concentric rings.
• The Neck - As you can see, the Super had the same fingerboard inlays as a Silver Bell #1.
• The Pot - The resonator flange is the same one as used on the "Special" series. The tailpiece is the extended version "Presto".
• The Tone Ring - Disassembled.
• The Tone Ring - Inverted.
• The Tone Ring - Re-assembled.
• The Tone Ring - B&D seems to have omitted the holes in its Silver Bell tone ring after around 1929.

A B&D "Silver Bell Style 1" Tenor Banjo

• The Front - Violin "f-hole" shaped resonator flange piercings on a Silver Bell (other than a Symphonie model) indicate Bacon or very early Gretsch manufacture. Very soon after purchasing the Bacon Banjo Company Gretsch standardized on cloverleaf shaped piercings as had been used on the Symphonie.
• The Back - I have never known why some Silver Bells have a silver ID plate on the back of the resonator and others do not. This one does not, although the serial number indicates manufacture around 1935. Further, some have inlays at both the heel cap and on the reverse of the peghead.
• The Oettinger Tailpiece - The fingers are individually adjustable to compensate for the fact that the strings are all of different thicknesses. They are adjusted to equalize the amount of downward pressure on the bridge, so the A string finger is adjusted the highest and the C string finger close to the head.
• The Back of the Peg Head - Showing Grover "Two Band" tuners.
• The Pot Exterior - The Soft Pedal spoon, when depressed by the player's leg, activated a push rod that "scissor jacked" a felt-padded damper against the inside of the head, directly underneath the bridge.
• The Pot Interior - This is the later style Silver Bell Tone Ring. The earlier style is illustrated with the "Super" shown above. In this photo the tone ring and neck brace are in reasonably sharp focus but the Soft Pedal mechanism is a little fuzzy.

A Gretsch-built Bacon "Symphonie" Silver Bell 5-String Banjo

The photo collage below is presented by permission of Mark Diamond of Diamond Images, Inc.

Introduced in 1934, the Symphonie had flange holes of the clover leaf style that later became the standard for all Silver Bell Models during the Gretsch-Bacon era.

• Click here to see the Collage

A B&D "Montana Style 3" Tenor Banjo

Photos courtesy of a friend in South Carolina.

• The Pot - Gold plated and engraved brass fittings. Note the Oettinger tailpiece, the Soft Pedal, the later style enlarged-diameter resonator and the aftermarket pick holder.
• The Resonator - Note the heel carving in the white holly neck, the tasteful thirties-style engraving pattern and the B&D identification plate.

A B&D "Style 6" Ne Plus Ultra Tenor Banjo

Photos courtesy of a friend in South Carolina.

• The Peg Head - The entire neck was made of solid ebony, the headstock and fretboard inlays of engraved elephant ivory.
• The Pot - Gold plated and engraved brass fittings on mother of pearl inlaid ebony.