Prewar_Gibson_banjo
Gibson manufactured banjos in the years before World War II. They are differentiated from later Gibson banjos by their scarcity. Banjo sales plummeted during the Great Depression, for lack of buyers, and metal parts became scarce into the 1940s as factories shifted to support the war.[1] As parts became scarce, non-standard versions came out, made from a variety of leftover parts, called floor sweep models.[2]