This model is the ideal instrument for the player who desires a combination of superior tone and a flashing golden appearance.” “The new Soloist model is designed to offer the finest tonal qualities, characteristic of all Vegaphones, with an attractive flashing appearance. The ”Soloist” banjo is described in a 1928 Vega catalog: Day, assignor to the Vega Company, for an improved means for stretching and retaining the head of a banjo. Fairbanks, for new and useful improvements in banjos. Patent #489470 dated January 10, 1893, by Albert C. Patent #443510 dated December 30, 1890, by Albert C. This banjo features the following patents: The resonator is made of a maple five ply laminated shell and rim. Gold-finish gear pegs with white pearloid buttons, gold-finish tailpiece. The neck is made of maple, peghead with mother of pearl inlay, ebony fingerboard with pearl inlay position marks, and 22 frets. It is a Four-String Banjo, Soloist Model, Serial #87500, with a seven-lap laminated maple rim, gold-finish top hoop and hooks, new design flanges and 28 brackets, patented Tu-ba phone tone tube and bracket band in a nickel finish. With its original Vega nameplate, handle, and ruby red velour interior, it is a gorgeous accent to an unbelievably cool steel.This banjo was made by the Vega Company in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1929. The icing on this particular cake is the super-cool original hard shell case that's housed this steel all its life. It shows some finish wear, but is in fine working order, with a new tone capacitor and output jack and there is a non-original (capped) hole in the treble side of the metal cover-plate where we suspect a tone control was once installed. The steel is equipped with volume and tone controls, adjustable arch-top bridge, and Grover G-98 tuners. Who knows, perhaps Seth Lover had one of these early Vega steels in his design-shop! The pickup sounds very good, with a strong output and a Tele-in-middle-switch-position kind of tone. Of significant interest is the pickup Vega designed: With its two large horseshoe magnets, double coils, and twelve non-adjustable pole-pieces these were the world's first manufactured 'Humbucking' pickups, although that name wouldn't be coined by Gibson for some 20 years to come. Their instruments featured two-point wooden bodies, with large nickel-plated brass plates that housed the pickup and bridge/tailpiece assemblies. Vega, a highly regarded Boston manufacturer of banjos, guitars, and mandolins, introduced its line of lap steels during this era. During the later half of the 1930's, many instrument companies were doing all they could to dive into the fray of the new electric guitar market.

Vega guitar serial numbers