Banning Ladybird “Jet”

This is a handmade “Ladybird” guitar from Banning Guitars in Lodi, California. It is built to look (and play) like a vintage-style Duo-Jet Penguin. It has TV Jones dynasonic pickups and it plays and sounds great. The neck is substantial and pretty big. It was relic’d at Banning (and has been played a lot as well). The body is heavily chambered, almost hollow in places like an old duo-jet. It is handmade, and it has the nuances that represent a small builder handmaking a limited number of these particular guitars. It feels and sounds like it is “old”. I used to use this one tuned down a whole step and it completely rocked. Go to the video link to see how it plays and sounds (in standard tuning).

I’ve loved this guitar, and the only reason I’m selling it is to fund another purchase.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that the truss rod doesn’t do much. It’s not broken, it just doesn’t change the relief in the neck all that much. The neck is straight and strong, so it’s never been a problem. The body-depth is a little shallower than a typical vintage jet. I’ve tried to describe all the nuances of the guitar, but would be happy to answer any questions you might have. No case for this one.

The pickups are a matched set of TV Jones—-they hum cancel when in the center toggle position. Neck width at the nut is about 1.692” or 43mm and gets to 2.081” or 53mm at the 12th fret, the depth is a little harder to measure but it’s .91” or 23mm at the nut and stays pretty consistent—-maybe a fraction deeper as you go up the neck, but it wouldn’t be much. It is much more of a “C” shaped neck, NOT a “D” shape (the one that has the shallow back). It is VERY comfortable, but it is a little larger than most of the production guitars that I run across these days. Hope that helps