Travel back in time with this vintage tenor banjo. Branded "Supertone Orchestra King," it is identical to the William Lange "Challenger King." Prior to about 1940, and its introduction of the Silvertone brand, Supertone was Sears & Roebuck's instrument brand. Sears farmed out production to various instrument makers, mostly its fellow Chicago makers (Harmony and Kay), but also to classy New York City maker, Wm. Lange. Lange is probably best known for his popular 1920s Paramount banjos. At the time, the Orchestra King (and Challenger King) was a very high-end instrument. Except for the tailpiece, it's all gold hardware, including sweet Page geared tuners. Mucho mother-of-pearl inlay on the fingerboard and peghead top (all intact). Fancy sandwiched striping on the neck and pot. "Hot dog" arm rest. Three-ringed pearloid resonator cover. It does have ordinary play wear all over, with tarnishing on the gold metal finish all over. Some fret wear, but not bad. Some fingerboard wear in first three frets, but not bad. Two of the six tiny gold nuts 'n' bolts holding the pearloid cover on the resonator are missing. Fancy double-striped dowel stick is stamped "CHALLENGER" and "LANGE PATENT." The dowel and inner resonator rim are stamped 0680. The inside of the outer resonator rim is stamped 163A, and the inner resonator rim is also stamped 156A.       I could not find a good Lange banjo serial number decoder, so am just reasonably figuring it to be from approximately 1930s, with a few years give-and-take either way. In another example of Lange's ingenuity, the two-piece resonator is actually adjustable. Both the inner and outer resonator have 11/16" holes. The holes can be lined lined up for a louder sound or adjusted to be blocked off, for a quieter sound. Pretty fancy, huh? (I put a very small amount of grease on the inner resonator ring to make resonator-hole adjustment easier.) The neck is appropriately straight. Comes with the fancy original case, which is lined with padded velvet with a zippered protector. The case is worn, but solid, and is missing its handle. Also comes with two antique Fitrite finger picks and two extra bridges. The original Grover bridge was bowed. I've replaced it with another Grover bridge. The other two bridges are taller and shorter than the present bridge, depending on where you want the action and attack. Finally, it comes with an old 1930s tenor banjo instruction book. I just put new strings on it, and it sounds great. It's a great old All-American player's banjo, not a closet queen, that has plenty of music left in it.     I got it from the daughter-in-law of the original owner. Born in 1908, he was a German immigrant, who lived on a farm now covered by the city of Indianapolis, and worked as a blacksmith for the railroad. In the spare time of his younger days, he played tenor banjo.                  If you do make an offer during business hours, please know that I typically respond to offers within the hour. Questions?      Please check out my Ebay store, “The 1970 Time Travel Trailer,” for more cool vintage stuff, including a bunch of vintage guitars (and a few ukuleles, banjos, fiddles, mandolins and amps, as well as fiddles, brass, woodwind, and various oddball musical instruments and old instrument brochures & catalogs). And please check out our new YouTube TV show, “Musical Treasure Hunting,” to see more of our adventures searching for old musical instruments.