Ray Alden was active in the Old Time Music community for nearly 40 years. He had taught at The Tennessee Banjo Institute, Augusta Folk Heritage Institute, Banjo Camp North, appeared in concerts, workshops, and on recordings. One of the first devotees of the music from Round Peak, Ray began taking field trips to North Carolina in the early 1970s recording the music of Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed and Ernest East. Ray’s tireless devotion to their music provided him with hundreds of hours of exceptionally well recorded and meticulously documented field recordings of these and other musicians in the region. He has since passed away in 2009, but lived towards the end of his life not far from us in Upstate NY. This banjo was built by Ray - certainly an interesting instrument with some homage to Kyle Creed and the blue-ish black Kel Kroydon. It has an 11.25" thin rim design with a nice brass spun over rim and tonering. The sound is plunky with nice definition, and good volume. The banjo is nice and light, but appears to have a maple neck - finished in a dark blue lacquer - with only some flame being visible. Creed inspired blue speckle formica fingerboard - it's an excellent choice for old time. The 25" scale neck is nice and straight, the fingerboard feels a hair wide, the nut measuring 1 13/32". The string height at the pot measures 3/16". The peg head is adorned with a MOP folklore monster inside a very Gibson-esque inlay pattern with cream lacquer. Unmarked pancake style tuners hold as they should. Cosmetically, this banjo is in great shape with some typical wear in the brass, and light play wear in the head. Includes simple gig bag.