Over the weekend I posted the following on the Bluegrass forum. A respondent suggested I post it here. Tvr na temu moraljna chi amoraljna kniga roman portret dorana greya. 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.

Finally, in 1971 I heard of a store north of Philadelphia, “Zapf’s,” that supposedly had a rogue buyer who had stocked up on high-end banjos for some reason, and had a Baldwin D plectrum on display. I jumped at the chance to get it. (Here is a informative history of Ode, Baldwin, Baldwin-Ode, and Ome banjos.).

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 3/6/2005, 14:14 น. 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. 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' wrote in message news:3L3oe.20266$4u.7313@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com. Rfd.@optonline.net 4/6/2005, 19:18 น.