Banjos

Uniquely Deering, The Boston Banjo breaks with tradition and provides a professional quality sound at a lower price point by creating the drum from 3/16” rolled steel which rings like a tone ring and upgrading the accuracy of tuning with guitar style tuners with a higher gear ratio. The uniquely Deering inlay pattern gives you visual beauty enhancing the great performance.  This banjo is often the preferred sound in country recording studios, and in non-traditional bands like the Keith Urban Band.  The Deering Retail Price is $2019

Dowel stick construction without tone ring Cooperman 12" 3-ply Maple rim 25.4" scale length/bone nut/1-5/16" nut width Indian Rosewood cap on bottom of rim/dowel stick/heel cap Ebony 17-fret fingerboard with frailing scoop Mahogany neck w/traditional small peghead shape Nickel plated grooved tension hoop leaf inlay on peghead/Elite Amber head 5-Star Planet tuners/2-way adjustable truss rod brown stain and matte finish overall Tweed hard-shell case

This model is formerly known as the "Jim Mills w/ Truetone upgrade" but is now called a "Custom VRB-75-41 w/Truetone upgrade" because Mr. Mills dropped his endorsement when he left Ricky Skaggs.  The custom features that make up this banjo are:  gold-plating, engraving, V-neck, speed neck and etched and gold-plated clamshell tailpiece.

The Gibson RB-250 is the most standard and also one of the most common models of five-string Mastertone.   It was introduced in 1954 and in that original version it had "bowtie" fingerboard inlays.  In 1970 Gibson revised the model to have something called a "varied pattern" mother of pearl inlay sequence on the fingerboard - but for the most part, since the last inlay depicts a flying bird, we and many other people who are not yet institutionalized call it "Flying Birdie."

Presenting:  Deering's newest professional grade open back 5-string banjo. The Eagle II banjo is a whole new breed. It features the ground breaking, patent pending Twenty-Ten tone ring which is a completely original Deering design that gives the banjo an extremely clear tone.  This is an fine clawhammer banjo! Its neck is maple that’s been stained a dark red mahogany while its fingerboard is natural ebony (which means black).

The Deering List Price is $2249

In flame maple and engraved gold plating this is a timeless classic! It has a shaded golden sunburst resonator which makes the flame maple jump out at you like a deranged sky diver. With the distinctive Lexington engraving, it proffers the famous Huber pot assembly, Truetone upgrade, and heavy gold plating.  It is nearly blinding in appearance and its exquisite sound will reduce manly men to a small pond of lachrymose fluid.

From day one, way back in 1995, America has had a love affair with the Deering Goodtime five-string banjo.   This economical but incredibly fine sounding instrument not only broke tradition in looks but in volume of sales that made it tough to keep up with demand. Over the years artists like John McEuen, Steve Martin, David Holt, and more recently Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops have sung praises over the  Goodtime as the tone and playability proved out that “a banjo doesn't have to be fancy to be extremely fulfilling and suitable for the beginner. ”

From day one, way back in 1995, America has had a love affair with the Deering Goodtime five-string banjo.   This economical but incredibly fine sounding instrument not only broke tradition in looks but in volume of sales that made it tough to keep up with demand. Over the years artists like John McEuen, Steve Martin, David Holt, and more recently Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops have sung praises over the  Goodtime as the tone and playability proved out that “a banjo doesn't have to be fancy to be extremely fulfilling and suitable for the beginner. ”

This is the supremely fine old time 5-string open-back banjo with the 11”head and the priceless prewar Bacon (pre-Bacon-and-Day) rain-gutter style nickel-plated brass tone ring. Bart also provides a translucent head so you can see this remarkable tone ring from both sides, now. It sounds ultra-great, it is beautiful beyond words, and it carries us back to old Groton, CT like nothing else can.

If you want a top quality reasonably priced Tenor banjo, this is a real find! Made in America at the Deering Banjo factory in California, the Goodtime open-back banjo weighs about 4 pounds so it is ideal for traveling, camping, hiking, taking to the beach and provides a vibrant singing banjo tone in any situation. Also, light enough for children to hold and play and is the perfect banjo for a child to start out with since it is fretted correctly and plays easily.   The Deering List Price is $499

The case lid has an old decal on it from the George Hotel in Bermuda (oh, the stories it could tell).  There are few tenor banjos as well regarded or as beautiful in their simplicity as the prewar B&D Silver Bell No. 1.  Silver Bell was the highest numbered series in the B&D banjo line.   This one has the scalloped headstock design, the flowery headplate that is inlaid with many dozens of pieces of mother of pearl forming wreaths and branches and leaves and flourishes with the words “B&D,” and then “Silver” and then “Bell” in large pearl script.    WAS $1335 BUT NOW ON SALE FOR:

What a great sounding traditional banjo! The Classic Goodtime Special Openback is louder than the original Goodtime model because it has the patent pending Goodtime tone ring and is great for players who like to jam and want to be heard amongst a crowd. The rich brown stain, planetary tuners, and Deering peghead shape gives the traditional, classic look of a vintage banjo.  The Deering List Price is $939

What a great sounding traditional banjo! The Classic Goodtime Special Openback is louder than the original Goodtime model because it has the patent pending Goodtime tone ring and is great for players who like to jam and want to be heard amongst a crowd. The rich brown stain, planetary tuners, and Deering peghead shape gives the traditional, classic look of a vintage banjo. This versatile banjo can be played in the keys of A, B, or C by using the spikes which are already installed and a capo.  The Deering List Price is $939

The TB-11 was one of Gibson’s highest level non-Mastertone tenor banjos.    It has the greatly desired “one-piece” flange and the tragically yearned-for ultimate rim construction that renders ecstatic the person who wishes to convert this to a five-string banjo by way of having a new 5-stirng neck made for it and installing a first class tone ring.    The back of its maple resonator is pearloid covered and has a large four-point pastel-color flower whose petals are dark cherry sunburst, with some flourishes between the petals, and this is bordered in yellow with a black fluted border similar to a wreath.

There is so much we do not know about the Vestal Stealth, since it flies under the radar, but we can tell you that it is bestowed with a new and original neck design   that does not have a large and flared out headstock, instead it more resembles a bizarre and hideous rectal probe carried by the itinerant scouts who hail from the planet Zorg.    For example it has a tunnel under the fingerboard that begins on the softly (rounded) pointed 7 ¼” long by 1 3/16th” wide headstock, and the string that enters that tunnel emerges just before the fifth fret and so it doesn’t require either its own nut or for the fretboard to have the wider extension at the fifth string.

The Cripple Creek CC-0T is Gold Tone’s recommended entry level openback banjo.  A world above the standard CC-50 model, the CC-0T comes in a complete package designed to learn clawhammer style banjo.  They sound and play to way a real openback banjo should!  The banjo includes a maple neck, scooped rosewood fingerboard with 5th string capo spike, a Fiberskyn banjo head, No Knot tailpiece, Vega-style armrest, vintage Fairbanks headstock design, and geared tuners.  

The Crusader is made from mahogany and has nickel-plated metal parts. Its sound is both dynamic, mellow and exceedingly smooth (lacking stridency) and produces punch and power in all registers. This banjo, like all new Stellings, features the Tony Pass 600TS Old Wood Rim (preserved under pressure for hundreds of years beneath the big lake they call Gitchigumi, or some other lake) and housed in a deluxe TKL emerald green crushed velvet plush lined case.