1954 RB-250 Custom (FON 4-2462-7)
1954 RB-250 Custom (FON 4-2462-7)

1954 RB-250 Custom (FON 4-2462-7)

1954

Out of stock

SKU: 4-2462-7 Categories: , Tags: , , , ,

Description

1954 Gibson RB-250 “Custom” 5-string banjo.  FON 50)

This provided by noted acoustic instrument collector and historian, Tom Isenhour.  Tom’s explanation of the banjo’s origin on Facebook:

All I know is that in the 50’s and 60’s Gibson did have a Special Order Custom Instrument Dept. That’s what they called it in the price guide. I actually worked part-time at our local Gibson dealer in the late 60’s after school and weekends. Certain instruments like the J200, F-5, F-12, L-5, Super 400 and other high end models were custom ordered only. Meaning a Gibson dealer likely would not have one on display, so you special ordered it from the photo catalog with a down-payment. The late Dewey Farmer told me of his experience on ordering a new F-5 in the late 50’s. He made his down payment and it didn’t come in for another 10 months. It also meant you could custom order other models. Think like Jethro Burn’s special made all red finish, with a long F-5 style neck, A-5 oval hole model and special guitars you saw Country stars with like Hank Snow, Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash, etc. So if a banjo picker wanted the flowerpot inlay in the 250 he “custom” ordered it that way. There would be an “upcharge” depending on what was different. All I was told by Curtis McPeake, who wanted mine real bad, is that he knew of only 6 custom flowerpot RB250’s and all of them in the mid to late 50’s. Mine was custom ordered by Ralph Law in 1954. The only difference between it and a regular RB250 for ’54 is the flowerpot and the “custom” truss rod cover. Seems I’ve seen 2 of the others and they did not have the “custom” truss rod cover, so I guess that was another add-on custom. It could be Ralph was a banjo picker and a mandolin picker and had an F5 which came with a flowerpot as standard and wanted his banjo to have same inlay. I’ve only seen one J200 custom ordered with a flowerpot. You’d think as high end as the J200 and the RB250 was that they would have come standard with the flowerpot, but they didn’t.

Photo of Tom picking the banjo is with the legendary Al Jones.

Additional information

Year

1954

Model

RB-250

FON

4-2462-7

Flange

1 piece

Custom

Custom ordered flowerpot headstock and “custom” truss rod

Tone Ring

4 hole archtop