ODE banjos was founded by Chuck Ogsbury who started making banjos while still at University in Denver, Colorado in 1959. ODE sold their banjos direct to customers but by the mid 1960s they also had a brand Muse which was distributed via music stores. In 1966 Ogsbury sold ODE to the Baldwin Company, who were expanding their musical instrument line by purchasing musical instrument manufacturers. In 1968 Baldwin moved ODE from Boulder to Arkansas where it remained until the early 1980s when Baldwin wound up many of its subsidiaries to bankruptcy. Initially Baldwin labelled their banjos as "Baldwin" then "Baldwin ODE" and finally just "ODE".

Folowing the sale of ODE to Baldwin, Chuck Ogsbury went back to engineering school before founding another banjo company - OME in the early 1970s.

Source: OME Banjos website (24 July 2018)

Source: Muse & ODE catalogs 1961 - 1967