ODE Banjo

[SoK66]

Over the weekend I posted the following on the Bluegrass forum. A respondent
suggested I post it here. Any info is appreciated!

Yesterday my neighbor gave me an ODE 5-string banjo that he has had for
years and never learned to play. Being a long time guitar player, and recent
mandolin student, I had to admit I know not the first bit of beans about
banjos. So, anyway, I looked the thing up and it appears to be a very early,
Boulder-made original ODE. It has a Pete Seeger-type 25 fret long scale
(32") neck, an aluminum "body" (not sure what you call it on a banjo), a
three
piece mahogany neck (with thin light colored wood laminated between the
sections of mahogany), a gorgeous Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, Grover
rotomatic tuning machines and a few other details. The "ODE" name is pressed
is into the peghead and there are no serial numbers or model numbers
anywhere to be found. From what I can gather reading web sites, etc., I'm
fairly certain it's not one of the later BAldwin or Gretsch-made
instruments.

It's been poorly stored (no case) for many years and is very corroded in
spots. I'm in process of cleaning it up and it's bouncing back quite nicely.
I wondered if anyone out there knew anything about these instruments they
could share. One thing for sure, the thing is LOUD!

[Todd]

Check out this site http://www.omebanjos.com there is some history there,
you have quite a banjo on your hands!!! Also there is a group on Yahoo
dedicated to ODE banjos and they'd probably be interested in learning more
about your banjo and maybe getting your serial number to provide more info.
Try this also http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Odebanjos Hope this helps.

Regards
Todd Elam
OME Banjos

"SoK66" <So...@frontier.net> wrote in message
news:d7nbd...@enews2.newsguy.com...

[SoK66]

Todd,

Thanks very much, I checked out the OME site and will probably call you guys
to see if you can supply a couple of tension hook assemblies, which are
missing. Other than that the instrument appears to be totally original, even
has what appears to be the original ODE head. FWIW, it has had very poor
care and storage, yet it is in very restorable condition. Mr. Oglesby is to
be congratulated for having made such a durable instrument. (The Brazilian
rosewood on the fingerboard is to die for, by the way!)

My neighbor dropped the ODE in my lap on Saturady and I've been having a
great deal of fun learning about it and cleaning it up. I've been a guitar
player since since the early 60s but until this weekend had never played as
much as a note on banjo. I'm very happy to have this great instrument in my
collection.

"Todd" <nospam...@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:3L3oe.20266$4u....@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com...

[rfd...@optonline.net]

I'm also the proud (and original owner) of an Ode long neck, though
it's called a Muse. Apparently, if you bought a banjo direct from the
company, it was marked Ode. The ones they shipped to retailers were
called Muse. Who knows why? But mine is a long neck, aluminum pot,
with the squarish type peghead, which is the only thing I never liked
about it, wishing it were the scrolled type. You can see it at:

http://www.folkusa.org/Muse.html

[SoK66]

Wow, thanks so much for the reply. Mine has the ODE scrolled head, but from
your pictures appeares to be very similar otherwise.

<rfd...@optonline.net> wrote in message
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