The First Quality Music Blog

We’re proud to welcome another owner to the Sullivan Banjo family! Chris Hogue of Bargersville, IN picked up his Sullivan Vintage-35 banjo today in our retail showroom. This particular V-35 is a Mahogany model and is one of the first in the series we’ve produced.

To learn more about the Sullivan Vintage-35 Banjo, give us a call at (800) 635-2021 and be sure to check out the Sullivan Vintage-35 Story here.

Steve Gill with Eric & Jeff Sullivan in the Sullivan Historic Banjo Room

Steve Gill came by the shop today. After a short tour and a little business, Steve played a few tunes on one of our new Vintage 35 banjos. Steve is a big part of our new banjo as he supplies the resonators for these models. Steve owns and operates Gill Mfg. which currently produces the most accurate reproduction Pre-War Gibson Mastertone banjo resonators on the market. Steve makes all of the resonators by hand and they are so accurate that they could be passed off as original. Finding such a high quality product that is produced by one of the nicest guys I know has really put the finishing touch on our new Vintage 35 banjos.

We’re gearing up to launch the new sullivanbanjo.com ASAP, but we thought we should share a bit more banjo news with you in the meantime. Eric & Co. have been working on this tone ring for over three years, when we began by acquiring a pre-war flathead, and we’re nearing the ‘end’.

We’re preparing to send six of these instruments out to professional pickers to gather feedback before we begin offering the final version. Much like the prototype seen in the videos below, we’re building these banjos to extremely tight pre-war standards. Everything from the neck profile to the finish are as close to matching the pre-war style as possible.

We won’t be offering these until they are finished, and we’re generally not talking about them – we just thought we’d give you a sneak peak.  Stay tuned here, and at the new Sullivan Banjo site when it launches, to learn more.

Hey folks! Just wanted to drop by with a quick update on several happenings here at First Quality Music. We’ve had a lot going on the past few days, some of it pretty significant!

1) Twitter!
First Quality Music is now on Twitter! Check us out at http://www.twitter.com/1stqualitymusic – we’ll post things that don’t quite merit a full blog post, but are interesting nonetheless! We’re also looking at other endeavors into Social Media – feel free to give me an email at travis@fqms.com if you have any comments or ideas. Stay tuned!

2) The Laser
We’ve purchased a laser engraving system from Universal Laser Systems. As you can see, many of us are taking a little break to watch this thing in action. There are a ton of implications for us here, from engraving instrument parts (Truss Rod covers, Banjo name blocks, etc…) to creating wooden or glass plaques. From what we’ve seen today, we’ll be able to make a huge assortment of new, customized products for our customers. We’ll keep you posted on our progress as we learn how to use this thing, so stay posted!

3) Custom Color Matching
Also thought that we would share with you some of the custom work being done in our shop. Today when I went back to see what was going on, Tim was working on a fairly interesting banjo neck. A customer sent us an imported resonator and asked that we create a banjo around it. Check out what Tim has done so far, having matched the colors and the shade of the pearl inlay.

4) The Banjo Room
Friends of First Quality Music know that we were originally founded as a banjo supply company, and create the Sullivan Banjo line here at our retail showroom. So, what happens when you combine First Quality Music with an empty room in our building? Something amazing. We’ve collected many amazing banjos and artifacts through the years(Such as our sizable collected of pre-war banjo necks), and have decided to create a haven for the many banjo players who visit us every day. Again, stay posted for more updates on this project!

5) And of course, the same ol’ thing.
So much more to mention, a pre-war tone ring project, our old-growth mandolin, the new Sullivan Banjo site… the list goes on! But, we’re keeping ourselves busy with our true passion: serving our customers. I managed to catch a spy shot of Murrell tuning a guitar while speaking with some customers today – stop by and see us!

Eric and I were proud to present Harold Priddy of Louisville, Ky with the very first “Old Growth” Mandolin prototype today.  Harold was very excited to be the first one to own this wonderful mandolin.  This original prototype was built by master luthier Dave Harvey ( Gibson Original Instruments ) in Nashville, TN and was put into service on Oct 9th, 2008.  Serial #  81009010. Since that time it has been loaned out to many mandolin players to give it a test drive,  one of our favorite’s was Doyle Lawson of Quick Silver,  Doyle played it for about 4 weeks and even played a show or two with it.  One of Doyle’s comments was it sounded like a cross between one of his original 1926 and 1929 Ferns.  It just sounds old. Harold is anxious to get it out and break it in with his current band Fresh Cut Grass. Harold is a very respected mandolin player here in Louisville and has been playing 30 plus years. We look forward to hearing the mandoin on his new CD, he’s going into the studio on May 8th.  Stay Tuned!  First Quality is working on the 2nd and 3rd prototype currently and welcome anyone who wants to hear an “Old Growth” mandolin. Come on by the shop and give it a test drive.

Nathan Livers stopped by today and checked out our Gibson Old Growth Mandolin prototype. We’ve been working closely with Dave Harvey at Gibson Original Bluegrass to put this mandolin together out of the same factory floor wood that has been so successful in our Sullivan Banjo wood rim and bridges.  The mandolin  just got back from being test driven by Herschel Sizemore, a great mandolin player and a good friend of ours. Rumor has it that our prototype may be featured on a cut or two from his upcoming album. Stay tuned for more information to follow about the exciting mandolin project.

Nathan drop by to get some picks today and roped him in to playing a couple tunes with Murrell Thixton our resident Bluegrass Specialist. Nathan formerly played with James Monroe , Gary Brewer and the Kentucky Ramblers and Charlie Lawson & Oak Hill.  He is currently forming a group with Murrell (more on that later!). If you like what you hear, Nathan will be teaching here at First Quality Music in the near future.  Call us at 502-995-5651 ext. 7124 for more information!

when you stop by First Quality on a Saturday afternoon. If you were by this week, you would have seen Eric and his buddy Bob out back melting bronze shavings and pouring it into cast iron molds to be used later in a new composition tone ring. Did you hear that banjo players? New tone ring in the works at First Quality!

When I was walking through the shop this morning, I saw something new laid out on the workbench. It was an open back banjo with ‘Sullivan’ in the peghead. This got me curious so I set out to find Allen (our Shop Manager) to find out about it.

Turns out it’s a prototype for a new model that Allen and Eric are working on. It will be an open back banjo with a 1/4″ brass ring (very affordable!) that is upgradeable at a later date to include a tone ring, flange and resonator (very adaptable!). What a cool concept!

There are a few minor tweaks that need to be made, but it should be in full production in a week or so. Each one will come standard with a Sullivan Old Growth Bridge. And, are you ready for the best part? The price is going to be less than $750!