For one school year in the early ‘60s, Beach Boy Al Jardine attended Ferris State University in Michigan with aspirations to become a pharmacist. As Jardine tells FJ photographer/videographer Richard Newman, it was during that fateful year that – inspired by the sounds of the Kingston Trio – he drove to Chicago and purchased this Gretsch Broadkaster banjo. Jardine would use this instrument on numerous solo and Beach Boys recordings. He still cherishes it at his Big Sur, California home.

Jardine is just one of the banjo-toting subjects in the Fretboard Journal #30. Also in the issue: superstar banjo player Steve Martin.