1960s Gibson Bowtie Mastertone TB-250 Tenor Banjo

1960s Gibson Bowtie Mastertone TB-250 Tenor Banjo

Serial #335046

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◆ Original 1960s Gibson Bowtie Mastertone TB-250 Tenor Banjo

◆ Built during Gibson’s transitional bowtie-era production period

◆ Serial Number: 335046

◆ Freshly restrung and ready to play

◆ Includes non-original chipboard case

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FEATURES & APPOINTMENTS

◆ Classic Gibson “Bowtie” fingerboard inlays

◆ Mastertone fingerboard block

◆ Tube-and-plate flange construction

◆ Gibson-script tailpiece

◆ Multi-ply bound resonator

◆ Attractive marquetry purfling rings on the resonator

◆ Decorative side binding/purfling details that give this example a particularly upscale appearance

◆ Nickel-plated hardware throughout

◆ Comfortable tenor neck profile

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A FASCINATING TRANSITIONAL-PERIOD GIBSON

Gibson’s bowtie-era banjos are some of the most interesting instruments the company ever produced. During this transitional period, features and specifications often overlapped between production runs, resulting in unique instruments that don’t always fit neatly into a catalog description.

This TB-250 showcases many of the characteristics collectors and players appreciate from the era, including the iconic bowtie inlays, tube-and-plate flange construction, Mastertone appointments, and beautiful bound resonator with decorative marquetry. The combination of features gives this banjo a distinctive look and feel that stands apart from many contemporary examples.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CONDITION

This banjo has clearly been played and enjoyed over the decades, but it has also been cared for and remains a wonderful player today.

◆ Fresh set of strings installed

◆ Strong projection and lively tone

◆ Honest fingerboard wear from years playing

◆ Moderate fret wear with plenty of life remaining

◆ Small nick/chip at the heel area (pictured)

◆ Typical finish wear, scratches, and minor cosmetic marks consistent with age

◆ Hardware shows normal aging and patina

Overall, this is a clean vintage Gibson that displays honest use rather than abuse.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

WHY BUY THIS ONE?

Whether you’re a vintage Gibson collector, tenor banjo player, folk musician, Irish traditional player, or someone searching for an authentic American-made Mastertone, this is a fantastic opportunity to own a beautiful bowtie-era Gibson.

These 1960s TB-250s continue to be sought after for their unmistakable Gibson character, vintage appeal, and excellent playability. Clean examples with attractive appointments and honest originality are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ships professionally packed and fully insured in a non-original chipboard case.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━