The First Quality Music Blog- prototype

Aaron Thomas drops by to try out the Sullivan Vintage-35

Murrell Thixton — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:01:30 +0000

Aaron Thomas was in the showroom this week from Washington, IN and was kind enough to try out one of the new Sullivan Historic Vintage-35 Banjo Prototypes. We debuted this Banjo at IBMA and will have more information on it in the coming weeks – for now, the sound speaks for itself! He’s a great picker and in the video below performs a wonderful and unique version of “What a friend we have in Jesus”. Thanks for stopping by, Aaron!

Sullivan Banjo Prewar Prototype

Travis Cook — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:49:27 +0000

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.

Nathan Livers checks out our Gibson Old Growth Mandolin prototype

Jeff Sullivan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:37:32 +0000

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!

Could there be a new Sullivan Banjo in the works?

Marsha Sullivan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:20:00 +0000

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!