1880s Buckbee-made 5-String Openback Banjo

Tim did a bunch of work on this banjo for a local customer a month or two ago and it turned-out great. I'm a huge Buckbee banjo fan (the company later became Lange around 1900) and I enjoy every instrument of theirs that comes through the shop. They produced from the 1870s onwards and while they did make a variety of high-end instruments for other brand names (and some under their own), my favorite of their output are ones like this -- delightfully folksy and quirky.

This one has some older features and I would guesstimate it to be from right around 1880 rather than one of their more normalized forms from the late 1880s and early 1890s.

As I recall, Tim reset the dowel, cleaned-up the rim, leveled and dressed the frets, fit geared pegs, and set it all up. We even made a custom, rosewood bridge for it and Tim replaced the moon-shaped inlay that was missing mid-neck.