SOLD Huber Lancaster TrueTone Banjo

Among his many achievements, this incredible “renaissance man” built his own forge and developed an authentic replica of the iconic prewar Gibson flathead tone ring, duplicating the alloy and pouring techniques from the 1930s era.

This ring became the benchmark for that sought after “pre-war” sound. The Standard Huber Tone ring banjos remain one of the most popular Pre-war style banjos in the professional banjo scene…Huber banjos are considered by many of our customers to be the loudest banjo in our entire shop !

That said, despite his successful tone ring, Steve remained convinced there was more to learn on this subject.

Steve Huber has unique access to many priceless 1930s Gibson flathead rings and 30s maple rims. Through a painstaking, experimental process, he came to realize that there are surprising tonal differences when one mounts various early 30s tone rings on various original 1930s maple rims. The myriad tiny differences and flaws in these primitively made tone rings and rims have an audible effect on the banjo tone.

Interestingly, Steve came to realize that the rim is as important as the tone ring.

Without taking both parts into account; looking at the ring and rim as a unit, the extra effort spent improving on the ring would only offer a minor improvement over his already successful pre-war ring.

After years of experimentation, Steve and his skilled Luthiers narrowed it down to the “best” match between tone ring and rim. Then they set out on the quest to duplicate that magic combination using modern technology.

The latest TrueTone HR-30 Bronze tone ring combined with the Huber TrueTone Engineered Rim puts the ultimate pre-war Gibson flathead tone ring tone ring into the hands of modern players. Those players who might not have a spare $80,000 to invest in the “real thing”.

Fretwork, inlay work, finish and setup is typically superb as is always the case with every Huber Banjo we see.

Grant MacNeill

Read more about Huber Banjos here