Item List Riley - Baker Read More

Item List John G Abbott 1878 to 1938 Read More

Baldwin < Back Baldwin In October 1966 it was announced that the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company of Cincinnati, OH, had bought the Ode Banjo Company of Boulder, Colorado. The Ode Factory at Boulder, With Mel Placke as Plant Manager and Charles Ogsbury as consultant continue to make the banjos in three styles sold under the name of Baldwin through the companies guitar division. Pictures courtesy of Intermountain Guitar & Banjo Previous Next

Item List Ball, Beavon & Co Read More

Barnes & Mullins < Back Barnes & Mullins 1872-1932 and 1873-1954 ....Samuel Bowley Barnes (b 1872 in Wimborne, Dorset) and Albert Edward Mullins (b 1873 in Bristol) were boyhood friends in their home town of Wimborne where they worked together at the local grocers shop. As young men they decide to join forces to become dealers in musical instruments; mainly selling banjos and mandolins in which they were particularly interested. Being players of no mean ability their public appearances helped them to sell their goods and soon they were despatching instruments all over the country, also because of their advertising and the launching (in February 1894) of their monthly fretted Instrument magazine called “The 'Jo." ("The 'Jo" title was changed to “The Troubadour" after a couple of years.) Both their sets of parents had died during the 1880's and while Mullins was living with his brother in law in 1891 neither appear on the 1901 census. They started to sell their "own" make of banjo but these were made for them by J. G. Abbott , W. E. Temlett . Windsor , Matthew , etc. - the usual makers "to the trade" at that time. It was in 1897 they patented their “mute attachment" which was fitted to B. & M. zither-banjos and worked from under the vellum. At the end of 1900 they moved to London and established themselves at Rathbone Place, off London's Oxford Street, as a wholesale house in all musical instruments and merchandise and, soon after, started their own workshops at Harrow, Middlesex. which at first were under the supervision of John G Abbott. During the dance-band boom they marketed- their "Lyratone" banjos, plectrum banjos and tenor-banjo which enjoyed considerable popularity. A feature of these instruments was the all-metal construction of the hoops. In 1924 Barnes was granted a patent simplifying the tensioning of the skin on a zither banjo through a redesigned tension ring. They ceased making banjos soon after the outbreak of World War II. the instruments branded "B. & M." sold from about 1965, have been made for them in Germany. Previous Next

Robert H Benary < Back Robert H Benary .. was a instrument retailer/maker in New York in the last decade of the 19th C, who's banjo's were probably made by Buckbee. He was issued a patent for a tail piece and around 1895 the company changed its name to the Metropolitan Musical Instrument Co. They marketed both 5, 6 & 7 string banjo's fretted or flush fret under the "Celebrated Benary" name engraved on a plate on the heel. Previous Next

Bay State < Back Bay State also see Haynes Pictures courtesy of Intermountain Guitar and Banjo Previous Next

Item List Fred J Bacon 1871 to 1948 Read More

.. of 60 Colombo Road, llford, and then 100 Felbrigge Road, Goodmayes, was a successful teacher of the fretted instruments in the llford Forest Gate and Romford areas 0f Essex who flourished from soon after 1900 up to 1936. He sold a high- class well-made banjo which bore his name and address as "maker" but the characteristics of these instruments seem to indicate they were made for him by J. G. Abbott . He moved from Felbrigge Road in April 1930 and no banjos appear to have been sold by him after this date. W G Davis Do you have a banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

... of Newark New Jersey .. little if anything is known of this maker. F H Douglas Do you have a banjo by this maker? can you supply us some images? next maker

... was a high quality instrument maker in Philladelphia, Pennsylvania in the last quarter of the 19th C. While he built instruments and competed with the quality of S S Stewart he did not make anything like the volume. images courtesy of Mark Ralston Joseph Ricketts next maker