Walt Richards

Guitars | Banjos | Mandolins | Accessories

OME Banjos

 

OME is offering a new series of banjos which are “Old-Timey” in their sound and look, while retaining our trademark balanced tone, elegant feel, unique designs, lively response, high-quality craftsmanship and life-long durability.

The first thing we did was to widen the neck just enough to fill the fretting hand better and to increase ease of string work. Then we shortened the neck to bring out more warmth. And we simplified the inlays while adding a flourish in the s-shaped frailing scoop.

Inspired by the elegant simplicity of Ashborn Banjos, we also decided to replace the two brass rim rods in the 12" pots with a single adjustable J.Romero-style wooden rod. This really brings out a “woodier” tone while connecting the neck solidly to the rim. To keep the strings nice and even sounding and to cut out some overtones, our leader, Chuck Ogsbury, designed the “Sweetone” tailpiece of heavy gauge solid brass – it’s long enough to just add some pressure to the strings, but not too much. Last but not least, and after many experiments with different methods, we decided to offer these banjos with raw brass which is antiqued in our shop by Chuck himself. (His next career might be a chemist!)

The final touches of these banjos include hand-rubbed stains and oil vanishes; new solid brass Ome ball shoes; wonderful fret-work and set-up done by yours truly Rich Sharples – our master luthier who has been with us since 1989!; hand-made bridges; and our chenille-wrapped banjo strings.

Here are the specifications: Mahogany, Walnut or Cherry with Ebony Mother-of-Pearl and Abalone inlays Hand-rubbed oil varnish finish Shorter scale length of 25.5" as opposed to 26.25" Wider string spacing and nut width of 1.34" as opposed to 1.28" Raw brass hardware instead of nickel plated hardware Wooden rod instead of double rim rods 11" and 12" maple rims Sweetone tailpiece S-shaped frailing scoops Fretless model available in “Minstrel” and “Tupelo” **Wooden armrest are additional ** Curly maple and cherry are finished with satin lacquer Info from OMEBanjos.com

 

OME Minstrel

 

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OME Tupelo

 

In the spirit of offering another high-quality and affordable Old-Timey banjo, OME presents the “Tupelo”. Like the new “Minstrel” model, this banjo has a 12″ tone-rim (our wood tone ring) fitted with 14 brackets and a single wooden rod in the pot; a slightly shorter and fuller neck with a scale of 25.5″ and nut width of 1.34″; and aged brass including our new tailpiece, the “Sweetone”.

Weighing only 5 pounds, the “Tupelo” makes an earthy, round tone with nice volume, and has wonderful bounce in playability. Any player seeking to blend into an Old-Time jam will be very satisfied with the articulate yet sweet sound of this banjo.

Here’s what Chuck Ogsbury says about this and his new line of “Old-Timey” banjos:

“…It’s been an interesting journey. When I first started building banjos in 1960, the rage was an 11″ pot with lots of metal and an extra long neck. Then Bluegrass came along and we added more metal, pearl, and a resonator. Then Jazz came along and we added even more pearl, lots of carving, metal and inlay engraving, and gold. In the last few years, the pot has grown to 12″, the scale shortened to 25.5″, the neck got wider, and we got rid of lots of metal, pearl, flash, and the resonator. We are back to where we started! And we’ve never made banjos so sweet sounding!”

Info from OMEBanjos.com

 

Guitars | Banjos | Mandolins | Accessories