(b Sterling, MA, 5 Sept 1852; d Watertown, MA, 10 Oct 1919). American banjo maker. Although best known today as a maker of excellently made and elaborately decorated banjos, he was a skilled craftsman and successful entrepreneur whose business interests later included bicycles and a paint manufacturing company. He moved to Boston in 1868 and in 1880 began making banjos at Court Street in partnership with William A. Cole, a well-known banjo teacher. About 1887 further premises were obtained at 178 Tremont Street, Boston, and by 1888 Fairbanks was joined by David L. Day, who was listed as manager in 1889. From about 1891 to 1893 the firm, operating only from Tremont Street, was known as A.C. Fairbanks Co. The firm moved to 27 Beach Street, Boston, in 1894, when Fairbanks sold his interest to Cummings and Dodge. It stayed at Beach Street until the move about 1901 to 786 Washington Street, Boston. After the acquisition of the firm by the Vega Co. in 1904 David L. Day became sales and general manager of the Vega Co., and from about 1922 was a partner and vice-president in the Bacon Banjo Co. of Groton, Connecticut. The Fairbanks name continued to be used on Vega instruments until the early 1920s. Vega Co. was acquired by the Martin firm in 1970.
In 1887 and 1890 Fairbanks secured two US patents (nos.360005 and 443510) for improvements in banjo construction. The 1890 patent was important as the basis for the ‘Electric’ style rim, which was incorporated into the still-popular ‘Whyte Laydie’ style after the A.C. Fairbanks Co. was acquired by the Vega Co. in 1904. The ‘Electric’ rim consisted of a heavy scalloped metal support for a solid metal ‘tone ring’ over which the head was stretched, and its commercial success was an important step in the development of the banjo. Fairbanks promoted his banjos through events such as ‘Fairbanks and Coles’ Fifth Annual Banjo Contest’, the subject of a diatribe in his competitor S.S. Stewart’s Banjo and Guitar Journal for April and May 1888.
E. Kaufman: ‘The Fairbanks and Vega Companies’, Mugwumps Instrument Herald, vi/2 (1978)
J. Bollman: ‘The Banjo Makers of Boston’, Ring the Banjar!, ed. R.L. Webb (Cambridge, MA, 1984), 36–54
JAY SCOTT ODELL