Bacon & Day Silver Bell Tenor Banjo c.1925

“The Bacon & Day Silver Bell line of banjos was introduced in 1923. To this day, many tenor and plectrum players consider Bacon & Day instruments to be the finest ever made.”  For guitar players who are not familiar with the banjo world, these two sentences place this instrument at a level with a 1930-45 Martin guitar.

The Silver Bells were Bacon & Day’s high-end range of banjos in the jazz age.  Made at the height of banjo popularity in the USA in the mid 1920’s, this B & D Silver Bell No.1 features 19 frets and 24 brackets, with 32 hand cut f-scroll carvings  adorning the silver plated resonator flange. Traditional snow flake and bowtie pearl neck inlays mark the fret numbers and other decorations include the floral inlays on the front of the headstock as well as a small diamond pearl inlay on the back of the headstock. The 11″pot is of dark fine-grained Brazilian Walnut. The neck is dark-stained flame maple, with  rosewood/ebony/rosewood centre inlay (metal truss rod within) and a rosewood ‘stinger’ at the rear of the nut area.  The nut is Ivory and the bound fretboard is Ebony.  The bar frets are all in smooth original condition. The natural skin head is in excellent shape with slightest of wear and no damage.  The hinged tailpiece incorporating fine tuners, and the bar frets, like the rest of the instrument, are all original in excellent order.  Comes with its original purple-lined black formfit hard case.