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| Tone Ring Alchemist |
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I became really motivated to pursue this whole tone ring project because of two big disappointments in the mid 1980's. When the Gibson Company first came out with the Earl Scruggs banjos, I ordered one. That old type is now referred to as a Stew-Mac Parts Kit, I guess. I was displeased with that, but I didn't want to give up on Gibson. I wanted a Gibson banjo because that is what everybody was supposed to play.
Anyway, I ordered the first gold-plated custom Gibson banjo from the Custom Shop in Nashville. It was interesting that when I got that banjo (it comes with the bridge folded down) and put the bridge up to tune it, the strings draped across the 22nd fret! That's how far off the neck cut was. It was an absolutely unbelievable thing. Those were a couple of real sad experiences. But it was a motivation for me to keep looking for a banjo -- which goes back, once again, to the tone ring, and making my own.
Our family business was named Anti-Friction Products, and our logo was stamped into the tone rings until mid-1991, when we closed the business because it was essentially part of the defense industry. Business was just drying up on the west coast and our lease was about to expire. So, we closed it. But, being intrigued with the banjo, I bought that part of the business out of the company and took it on as an individual. At that time, starting in 1992, the logo changed to my initials R K with a W below. These marks will be found on the last thousand of the Gibson 20-tone rings. All of them, though, have been made by me. both through the other company and now.
Anytime you come up with a new product, there is a learning curve involved. We went through trying to get the castings right, modifying the tooling and all sort of stuff. Once we had the bugs worked out for the 20-hole tone ring, I got to thinking that it's pretty sad that the best you can do is duplicate something that is 50 years old. If you are talking about the aging of wood, as in a guitar top, that is one thing. But that really does not apply with a banjo. You get a banjo, you get everything adjusted right, and you're off to the race track.
You're essentially set for the next 50 years. It's not in the same ballpark as a guitar because the instrument's half metal. The tonal qualities are being taken from the metal, not from wood. Really, the wood just holds a banjo together. Although I admit that the wood does provide an essence to the sound, the real important thing is the tone ring.
