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[The following article was originally published in the Banjo Newsletter, October 1993 Volume 20 Issue 12.]
Richard Kulesh is the person responsible for the development of the Gibson 20 hole tone ring for the banjos made from 1987 to the present time.
Gibson Company has an exclusive contract on that particular tone ring. Last winter, Janet Davis tested Mr. Kulesh's new 10-hole tone ring, developed for Rich & Taylor, Janet Wrote:
"The high-powered Rich & Taylor 10-hole tone ring is setting a new standard for five-string banjo tone rings. After hearing of the exceptional power and tone of the Rich & Taylor tone ring from respected sources, I decided to independently test and evaluate several of these tone rings, which were produced from different 'lots'. These were installed on various banjos, including "new age" professional banjos.
The results were remarkable. All of the ingredients for a pre-war sounding "state of the art" tone ring are evident -- incredible volume, quick response, excellent decay time of the notes, well-balanced tone with a clarity that spans the fingerboard, and a tonal depth tat seems to come from within the banjo, rather than from the surface of the head, projecting directly out the front of the banjo, rather than up.
You can feel the difference as well as hear it. The tonal difference was an improvement with each of the banjos, but it was particularly superior with those having high quality components and exact tone ring-rim fit. Also, the quick response made a noticeable improvement in the ease and playability with each of these banjos."/p>
In January of 1993, Nancy Nitchie interviewed Richard Kulesh by telephone. What follows is Richard Kulesh's story of how that tonering came about:
