If you know banjos you have likely heard of the Gold Star banjos.
First I’d like to explain that sometimes I’ve been known to some as the Gold star guy.. but I won’t pretend to be an expert in manufacturing details like dates, serial numbers, model production numbers, etc. I’ve just always loved these banjos and always keep my eyes open for any that have hit the market. For valuation I keep my ears to the market as a guide, I have no crystal ball. My point is that I’m definitely not a world authority on Gold Stars’ history or signature models, but simply enjoy bringing them to customers who don’t want the risk of buying an old banjos which have unknown quality and condition, and quite frankly, more times than not, need some restoration. A minor restoration would be simply replacing a head, bridge and tuners, making set up adjustments or a new truss rod cover etc.. Anything regarding refinishing, refretting, fingerboard leveling, crack repairs and resonator replacements are much more major in nature. But whatever we have done, and the current condition is fully explained in our ads with photos and a soundbyte, and we give a 14 day return policy on them as well so there is no risk to our customers whatsoever
About Gold Star banjos: The first of the “Masterclone” banjos had two eras.
You have to mention and compare Gold Star banjos to Gibson banjos because the Gold Star is the first direct copy of the Gibson mastertone banjos. After all Gibson developed the Mastertone construction design in the 1920s after many styles had been tried before, (I.E trapdoor, ball bearing) with the idea to give the banjo a louder, crisp tone. Their mastertone design was the biggest hit as it proved to be superior to other makers of the day, by outperforming in these areas. Since their quality had been so high before WW2 it was taken for granted, but the company really failed to keep quality up into the post war decades . Several big design changes took place, and the banjos of the mid 1950s through the 1970s had really slipped. You can find these era Gibson banjos on the market for substantially less than the prewar era banjos. Even different colors were used, I guess in keeping with the look of the 1960s and 70s, louder opaque colors like yellow and red combined with black are seen in some of the 60s sunburst styles. Construction was consumed by the budget into thinner rims and thinner tone.
Back around the mid- 1970s Richard Keldsen, an avid bluegrass lover and music store owner was as frustrated as anyone about the poor state of Gibson’s banjo manufacturing. They were known as the best bluegrass banjos- yet were not living up to their reputation. At some point Richard had an original idea to try to beat Gibson at their own game., and he contacted skilled instrument makers in Japan, and arranged to have “mastertone clone” banjos made which could compete with Gibson’s products. Out-doing Gibson at their own game was the goal. This was the first time any company was to copy the mastertone type banjos. He introduced the first awesome Gold Star banjos through his new company: Saga musical instruments. Richard ended up concentrating his business interests in that direction and left the retail business to expand the manufacture of many different bluegrass instruments- and continues today at Saga Musical Instruments, in South San Francisco, Ca.
Several excellent Gold Star models were produced in Japan
including both arch top and flat top models of their regular lines, copying the traditional production lines of Gibson in both maple and mahogany. The GF-85 is the basic flat top banjo with one piece flange and the basic bowtie inlay. The GF-100 is a fancier version with the one piece flange, but a choice of three inlay styles, indicated by a dash code at the end of the name on the sticker such as the GF-100 W, GF-100 HF and the GF-100 FE. These codes represent the Wreath, Hearts and Flowers, and the Flying Eagle traditional inlay patterns.
Next to mention were the excellent arch top banjos which were produced in high numbers. In my judgement the archtops they made in the early days were some of the best arch top banjos ever made, they sound powerful and were popular. In fact most of the vintage banjos I find are arch tops. It’s a shame arch tops are not popular today, but are my personal favorites of the early Gold Star models. These came in two woods, maple and mahogany. This is designated as the mahogany G-11 and maple G-12. These maple arch top banjos have the tonal combination of hard maple and arch top tone ring, making them loud and crisp sounding. They have a distinctive natural finish. As they age they tend to warm in color to a yellowish natural. These were made in the same three inlay patterns as the GF-100 models. Their arch top banjos were, as I know them, never made with the basic bowtie inlay. Note that the flat top banjos include the F in the name for flattop, and the arch top styles did not. So all G models are arch top and GF models are flattop.
The custom and signature models are sought after for being super high end instruments. The JD Crowe model of the early 1980s is especially highly valued. I believe that Sumi was the manufacturer of these models.
After a number of years the world economy shifted and it became impossible to continue banjo production in Japan, and importing the Gold Star line came to an end in 1986. His passion didn’t end, and some twenty years or so later he was able to start production up again, this time with skilled instrument makers in China. Still, the original Japanese Gold Star banjos have maintained their reputation as they are known to be of very fine quality in materials, workmanship and timbre. We know that some of these banjos were made by Sumi, and others by the Tokai Co. and were also marketed directly by Tokai for the Japanese market. Seems Bluegrass has become popular in Japan, Sweden and the Czech Republic! These banjos were marketed in Japan under both the Tokai brand on the headstock and the Gold Star brand. But keep in mind that at that time Tokai was making them for both US and Japanese markets as either Tokai or Gold Star brands, but are otherwise identical (as far as we know). There were also some very excellent special signature model banjos made outside of their regular models. These are usually of higher value.
Japanese production
The first Gold Star banjos were produced by Sumi, a well respected mandolin manufacturer in Japan. These are really great banjos in my opinion. Based solely on my experience dealing in so many examples, only minor differences are found from those made by Tokai, the manufacturer after Sumi. I’ve seen evidence that the Sumi production was from the start in 1976 to sometime in the second half of 1979. Some of these instruments did not have an oval label affixed to the inside of the rim boldly stating the Gold Star guarantee. Instead they only had a small strip of paper with a serial number. Sumi did eventually include the oval label, and all Tokai instruments have the label. Tokai produced banjos are of high quality also, but I have seen more flaws in those that I’ve restored. They seem to be a bit more spotty so I like to take a little closer look on these. They were produced with both the Tokai and Gold Star logos. These were made until 1986 when the line was discontinued due to dollar/Yen value shifts. I have never lacked interest in any Japanese Gold Star whether Sumi or Tokai in manufacture. I have purchased both brands from all over the USA and from sellers in Japan, I can’t tell them apart save for the headstock logo.
Chinese production
The second generation banjos are all made in China beginning c. 2005. They do not include any arch top banjos, but include the GF-85 which had a “die cast” tone ring that to me implies some alloy of zinc, the GF-100 (with the bronze ring) in three styles and the GF-200 which is a maple flattop banjo. These banjos have power accentuated by the hard maple wood neck and the tone of a good flat tone ring. The maple GF-200 JD model, a special version with a unique inlay pattern was introduced as a limited production model of about 200 banjos as I recall. I purchased a couple of these and found them to be very powerful, attractive banjos. It was said the production was going to cease, which it did.. but to my surprise it it was brought back again, becoming a catalog staple after about 2009.
Enthusiasm for the Chinese banjos started strong, but there were reports of a few banjos with problems. I found, as a dealer, that the earliest China produced banjos did have a modest defect rate. While perfectly good banjos were the norm, the exceptions were getting disparaged on internet forums, and though not without merit in some cases, in my opinion somewhat overblown. Of the dozens I sold I found a couple that had a problem or two which I did not sell but exchanged for more perfect specimens from Saga.
I found that the Chinese Gold Star banjos improved over the first two years and I would say from about 2008 on the defect problem was pretty much solved. I just didn’t see it anymore. I believe the workers were gaining skill and the products just got better and better. Any made after 2007 are not necessarily better, as good banjos were made before then too, but they did have more consistent high quality and therefore are a better bet to purchase on the used market.
The art of cloning a Gibson
Many features, including the pot assembly, neck shape, headstock design and Gibson’s inlay patterns were directly adopted into Gold Star banjos. As I mentioned about the early production both of the two Mastertone flange designs were used- The one-piece flange and the original two piece, also known as the tube-and-plate flanges. Usually (not always) the tube and plate flanges were used for the archtop banjos (G-11, G-12) and the one piece flanges were used on the flat tops (GF-85,GF-100). However this is NOT a hard, unbroken rule. I don’t find either style flange to degrade tone or playability. IMHO Gibson probably went to the one piece flange because it was quite a bit cheaper to manufacturer. Remember in October 1929 came the great depression and sales of every economic sector suffered, especially in non- essential products. Saga also employed nickel plating, standard on the Gibson of course giving them a very traditional appearance and however plating relates to tone, they had it. Their rim (wooden body) construction is a little different than Gibson’s, Gibson rims were three plies, and Saga chose to use maple bent and coiled and glued up into a solid rim. Once the glue had set, it was turned on a lathe to finish to shape and size. In spite of this minor pot construction difference they sound excellent and play well. Most people agreed, the new Gold Star banjos indeed surpassed the contemporary 1970s era Gibson banjo. Richard K. also made sure he used a high quality tone ring to complete the famous Gold Star tone, and he was one of the first to examine the metallurgy of the original pre-war tone ring. With the help of the University of California at Berkeley, success was made in duplicating the alloy.
It’s been our continued effort to find good, original Gold Star banjos from 1976-1986 of all types
As time moves along, they are becoming more difficult to find in good condition on the used market. The long term effects of how they have been played, stored, handled and the climate they’ve been subjected to are increasingly significant factors. I love to pick up some great older Gold Star banjos to offer our customers, and most now need at least some work.. So I’ll talk a little about what I do with them. I don’t restore anything on them that isn’t necessary. The real value in a Gold Star is how it plays. So anything that’s deteriorated badly, say if the finish is missing or badly scratched or chipped, only then will I consider refinishing. Missing or broken binding, bad frets, fingernail divots in fingerboards, and a damaged or missing case- These have to be fixed and I try to both set my purchase limits and my prices accordingly.
It is my goal to make these fine instruments highly playable,
and remove the mystery for my customers. So I take the unknowns, purchase them from whatever situation it is, an estate sale, original owner or unknowledgeable seller and unravel the truth. I always give you a full, knowledgeable and detailed description, plenty of photographs, restoration details, technical information, and play and record the banjo so you can hear it and see it before you buy.
Inventory is unpredictable.
We try to keep some around, but as I said they’re getting harder to find, sometimes we may have several, sometimes none. If you’re looking for an old Gold Star banjo that isn’t listed on our website it won’t hurt to drop me an E-mail and ask. It takes quite a bit of time to get one from “in the hand” to on the website with repairs, pictures, soundbyte all completed. And if you have one for sale, I’d love to hear about it, please drop me a line!
Dave.