Steve Huber has spent many years studying the older flathead banjos, especially those made prior to 1942. This research began long before he even dreamed of building his own line of banjos. His initial goal was to simply develop an understanding of what made these banjos so much richer and more responsive than newer instruments.

The first step was to determine the alloy used for those tone pre war rings, figuring that any new banjo that sought to deliver the “pre war flathead sound” would need a tone ring that was not only identical in specifications and dimensions, but also in alloy composition.

To obtain the original formula, Steve had a chemical analysis done on scrapings from a number of pre war rings. Though there were very minor deviations among the 18 samples he took, they were similar enough to give Steve a formula for his research. He decided to pour some test rings to see what he would get.

The next step was to experiment with his recipe to end up with the pre war formula in a finished piece. Since the procedure for melting the various metals causes the components with lower melting points to start burning off before the entire recipe liquifies, a great deal of adjustment and retesting was required.

After pouring several hundred pounds of metal, Huber was able to replicate the formula, and turned a small number of rings for testing. These were installed in several banjos, including original pre war flatheads, and evaluated in before-and-after tone comparisons. Other pre war experts and pro players were consulted during this process, and all agreed that Steve had hit on something special.

Huber was working in manufacturing at this time as a mechanical engineer, and began turning and plating Huber tone rings in his backyard shop in the evenings. These were offered for sale worldwide as retrofits for modern instruments and they lit a fire under the banjo market. The rings were an immediate hit and Steve began to see that there wasn't time for him to continue building tone rings (and eventually banjos) while working full time in another field.

This led to the official launch of the Huber Banjos company in 2001 and its location in Hendersonville, TN where the tone rings are still manufactured.

Not content to rest comfortably on his successes, Huber continues to investigate the science and technology of tone ring composition and manufacturing, offering Huber banjo and tone ring owners the fruits of his labors.