Mom’s Boy Jim playing an original Gibson Trapdoor 5-string banjo (circa 1922) he fetched back from banjo purgatory on behalf of a couple of non-banjo playing friends who inherited it long ago.

Not visible in the video are the gold tuners with their genuine mother of pearl buttons.  Unfortunately, neither of those elegant details makes this instrument any easier to get or keep in tune despite a lot of fiddling with the peg tension adjustments! 

Everything is in very good to excellent shape including an original hardshell bump case.

There's little evidence of playing wear on the original frets or fretboard.  All the plating is in good condition.  All that was done to put it in playing shape was a partial disassembly for cleaning.  After that all the loose stuff got tightened and some new strings were mounted.

According to the owners, it hadn't been even casually played since at least the early 1970's and hadn't seen serious playing for some years prior to that.

Frank Ford of Gryphon Instruments in Palo Alto (www.gryphonstrings.com) says the last original Gibson Trapdoor 5-string he's seen was decades ago. Luke Wilson of Wolf Note Music in Grass Valley says:  "I've wanted one for years!  What do they want for it?"

Get in line Luke...but it may be a long wait.  The instrument is a family heirloom and not for sale. 

Trapdoors are interesting...curiosities as much as sought after players since the easily recognizable design was quickly discontinued when the Mastertones came along shortly after this instrument left the factory. 

Ford also commented that without considerable tinkering & tweaking they are really nothing to write home about as far as tone is concerned.  Even then the Trapdoors seldom match up to more popular banjos of that era.  Though there are quite a few Trapdoor ukes, tenors & mando-banjos floating around Ford speculates that most of the fives just went to the dump when the superior sounding Mastertones appeared on the scene. 

That super-sized "french ivory" pick guard--as often as not missing from Trapdoors--is bowed down some on this one and contacts the top definitely effecting the tone.  Could that be why so many Trapdoors of all stripes are missing the standard issue guard?  It gets in the way of clawhammer style playing too--that and the fingerboard extension. All of which makes this a good candidate for fingerstyle.  It sounds it's best played that way.  With a little more tinkering (and practice on the part of the player!) it could likely be made to sound even better.  I'll have to consult Luke about that...but I won't be leaving it with him.