2018 Hawthorn RB-7 style top tension banjo

A brand new Bradford & Company built Hawthorn RB-7 style maple top tension banjo. This one has our proprietary sand cast and CNC machined Eco brass top tension hoop and flange in the raw brass. Eco brass has exceptional corrosion resistance and is as strong as stainless steel.  Gibson used pot metal (zinc, Zamac) on their flanges in the top tension banjos built from 1937 to 1941.  The flanges were notorious for stripping the few threads in the thin, soft flanges.  Our brass flanges are inherently stronger, thicker and reinforced with bosses at the bottom of the bolt holes on the bottom of the flange.
The  neck on this banjo is red maple.  Dual action truss rod.  The carved resonator is sugar maple.  The banjo has the period correct inlay and 12 inch radius on the rosewood fretboard, the carved maple resonator with the flat inside, brass Bill Rickard Precision 10:1 tuners with Boxwood tuner buttons, and a brass Rickard straight line tailpiece.  Remo Weatherking Head.   It has a period correct quick change arm rest also in the raw brass.  We used a new Huber HR-30 flathead tone ring mated to a new Huber Engineered Rim (three play maple).  Deering Smile bridge.  Finished in a cordovan burst.  With hard shell case.  This one is a monster. .  This is the same model banjo played by Wes Corbett of the Molly Tuttle Band, recently profiled in the December issue of Banjo Newsletter.  We have included a link to a video of Russ Carson and top tension meister Ned Luberecki comparing one of our RB-7 style banjos to Ned's original Gibson top tension model.