1932 Trujo (Gibson) Resonator Plectrum Banjo

This looks like a Trujo Style A banjo that has perhaps been replated to gold. Information is fairly scarce on these, however, so I can't quite be sure. A customer brought this beauty in and, while it looks outwardly like a small-shop wonder, once you peek inside it's clear that this is a Gibson-made instrument.

The outer giveaways are the Mastertone-style resonator purfling and a Gibson-style bracket band. Inside, however, shows a massive tonering that is a blend of an oversized "trap door vented" type of ring on top with a big, donut-style sleeve running towards the bottom. It's curious as all heck.

It shares the usual Gibson plectrum/5-string 26 3/8" scale length and has quite the fundamental, poppy, Gibson-like sound. The owner is a tenor player and he has it tuned CGDA rather than the traditional CGBD or guitar-centric DGBE but it's a re-entrant tuning of CGDA, with the DA strings only a step above the pitch of the CG strings. This is a tuning made famous by an old tenor banjo player (I'm blanking on the name) and on a tenor neck that would involve 4 wound strings (something like 32w, 22w, 28w, 18w) but because of the scale length on this guy, I have it strung 26w, 14, 24w, 12 as I recall. You can use the CGDA tenor shapes and yield the same chords but the sound is mids-centric and mellow -- perfect for backup chordal playing!

So far I've completely overlooked the amazing, Green Man-esque headstock shape, but there ya go.

Work was a level/dress of the frets and setup and it's playing like a champ.