Martin continued the traditional Vega yellow label sticker with the historic 6 digit serial number system but prefixed it with the letter “M” to signify new ownership. For about 2 years after acquiring the Vega brand in 1970, C.F. When the new VIP series was introduced in the 1968 Vega catalogue, it featured an identical MOP stye on its fingerboard but a more smoothly contoured peg head. In the 1966 Vega/Boston catalog, the Pro fretboard replaced its blockish mother of pearl inlays with your instrument`s “football and crowns” designs. The peg head on the Pro line of banjos seen in the 1963, 1966, and 1968 Vega catalogues is more squarish with somewhat pointy corners than the peg head shown on your 4-stringer. Your banjo (seen above) was manufactured in 1964 during a brief period when Vega used 5 digit serial numbers because of a printer`s error and when a prefix of “A” meant an adjustable truss rod. Thanks for the prompt and detailed pictures of your Vega Pro II plectrum banjo #B-12163 with its serial number curiously recorded on an unusual white, rather than yellow, label sticker. Have you come across the white labels before and if so, would you have any idea when & where the Banjo might have been made? If I can get an email for you I’ll send you some pics. Interestingly, the 5 digit serial number is preceded by the letter “B” handwritten on the label (I’m guessing that this may have been so the serial numbers don’t overlap with serial numbers from the “print error” models in ’63-’64?). However here’s the interesting part instead of the usual yellow label inside, it has a white label marked Needham Heights with a 5 digit serial number!Īt first I was worried that I might have scored a fake however I managed to google one other banjo with the same label (& a similar serial number) that the owner seemed to think was from 1970, which I believe would make it a transitional model.
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