I just closed a deai on a Rich & Taylor JD Crowe model on eBay. In the past few days I put several questions up on the various subject groups about R&T's or shipping or other things and everyone was very helpful. At $1,250. this is more money than I have ever spent on any 'luxury' purchase and I really sweated it out. I am still sweating it out until the beast arrives here (it has a 'possible' issue which I took a chance on). I just wanted to thank the general population here for their support and good guidance. It's a great crew.
Owning this banjo is very near to a dream for me. My dream rig would be an R&T Bill Keith model, but this is very close, and it has the 10 hole Kulesh tone ring, so both my teacher and I are happy. My teacher is really excited about this purchase also and is looking forward to helping me clean, fix and re-set it up. So getting this thing will be a neat project for my teacher and I to work on together and in so doing he will teach me more in areas I had not anticipated when I began this journey.
We are going to get this thing cleaned and set up just right, and I am gonna ask Bill to sign it right up there on the head. Then when I see JD in July I will ask him to sign it on the pot and the head, and I will be as close to heaven as I expect to be until I actually arrive (which is still a question of great debate).
Life is good, thanks folks.
Tom