This is a longneck conversion of a 1930 Vegaphone.
I wanted to post sound files, but "Garbage Band" was not cooperating today. If there is interest in this thread, I WILL post sound files. The sound of this is killer.
The pot is in excellent condition and totally original, including a serial number scratched onto the tubaphone that matches the number on the rim and dowel stick. Here’s an exploded view of the pot:
It’s quite a beautiful pot.
Neither the customer nor I wanted to copy a Pete Seeger, yet we wanted it to have the classic “Vega longneck” appearance. It has my “LeVan” peg head shape instead of a Vega one, and the Vega engraved star that was often used on the backs of some vintage Vega pegheads is in the center of the peghead.
Where there would mormally be a VEGA logo on a Pete Seeger, we put the date of the pot -“1930”.
The pot is really the star of this, banjo - I couldn’t put my own name on it.
The neck is old curly maple, dyed to match the interior of the pot, and the cross-banding under the fingerboard has been engineered to provide a lighter maple block at marked frets, as a subtle way to make “side dots.:
The neck is reinforced with a 2 way electric bass trudss rod and 2 carbon fiber strips:
The peghead veneer, fingerboard, and heel cap is made from Richerd Brown’s beautiful Texas ebony.
This wood, ”Ebenopsis ebano (synonym: Pithecellobium flexicaule)” is a native American wood, harder and denser than normal ebony, and sinks in water. It’s also more beautiful than plain black ebony.
