The success of this ring led to a dozen or more copycats, each in turn declaring their product to be a pre war replica ring, some charging as much as three times the Huber’s cost.
But the original Huber Vintage ring continues to prove its worth, on stage and in the studio. It has powered banjos for top pros like Sammy Shelor, Ron Block, Jim Mills, Greg Cahill, Jason Burleson, and more. You can hear the sound of Huber Banjos made with the Huber Vintage Flathead on the two popular Huber CDs, Team Flathead and Cuppa’Jo.
The Huber Vintage Flathead tone ring, as well as all Huber tone rings, CAN be manufactured to a number of different specifications. Generally, we machine to pre war specs that include an outside diameter of 11 inches, an inside skirt diameter of 10.842 inches and a skirt length of .402 inches (long skirt). A tone ring machined to these specs will NOT fit Gibson and many other modern brands of banjos. What will fit these banjos is what we call a “standard” spec tone ring which incorporates a inside skirt diameter of 10.855 inches and a skirt length of .375 inches (short skirt). But not to worry! If you have a professional grade banjo with an 11” inch diameter rim (3/4” thickness), we can make a ring to fit.
We strongly urge you to send us your rim when ordering a new Huber Vintage ring, so we can fit it perfectly to the rim. This will ensure the optimum tone and response from your new Huber tone ring.
Please contact us if you are uncertain whether our ring will fit your banjo, or to find out more about Huber tone rings.
Please allow up to two weeks for shipping.
Jake Burrows (verified owner) –
I’ve played a vintage ring for a while in my old gibson and i think if your looking for a ring for a conversion on a prewar or a ring for a new banjo this is a great ring for the job it’s held up for me out on the road though all the mill’s and county’s and it’s not let me down, but don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to knock the other rings out there because there’s a lot of good rings out there but for tone power and consistency it’s my personal favorite.
Bruce Bowen (verified owner) –
I received the tone ring here in Montana after 7 days. Not bad for UPS ground. It was packed well and was in good shape . The nickel plating is even and shows no sign of flaking or cracking.
I had planned to use the new ring on a new project, but I decided to give it a try on an existing rim which is on a mahogany banjo I made a number of years ago with mostly first quality parts and which had a very long skirt tone ring on it. Thus the Vintage ring is a loose fit with about 1/16″ space below the skirt on the outside of the rim. However, the inside shoulder of the tone ring is in full contact with the rim which is essential for good sound. Even though the fit to the rim could be better the tone ring sounds surprisingly good. I played it for my wife and she could hear a big difference.
It has good volume, a lot of rich bass and is very even sounding. I think because of the loose fit it may lack a little volume in the high range but I look forward to playing the Huber powered banjo at our local jams. It is a good tone ring and I would recommend it, but as Steve says it would probably be better to get the rings full potential by having a rim fitted to it.
Best wishes-BB