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hi pickers i asked clancy if he could make a neck and resonator in walnut for me well what an great luthier they were absolutely perfect in every way and nothing was any trouble i live in the uk so i had to trust the person who recomended clancy also he.s prices are very reasonable i have just asked him to make another neck and reso johny

Overall Rating

10

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I had some severe issues with my RK 85-sn. It was playing like a dog and no matter what I did to it I could not get it better. I contacted Andy Banjo (U.K) and sent it off for the work to be done, not knowing what I was going to expect.
Andy did a fantastic job, replaced the lugg bolts, new head, new bridge, new schub 5th string capo - the lot! The action is now as it should be, even and low. I have a fantastic sounding instrument and I really do not know how he could have done all the work with all the new parts for the price he charged me.
All I can say is that for a professional set up, and at a cost that us mere mortals can afford, you will not find any better in the UK.

Overall Rating

10

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I had Lee Whitehurst, owner of Left Brian Guitar Repair, do a routine set up on a used banjo I recently purchased. Since I'm relatively new to playing, Lee provided me with a detailed explanation of everything he did, why he did it, and how it impacted the sound of the banjo. Lee is meticulous and he'll make sure that you are completely satisfied with your banjo before it leaves his shop. Mine sounds amazing. A real craftsman and a pleasure to do business with, I highly recommend Left Brain Guitar Repair for banjos!

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I recently had John convert a TB 1926 BB for me and the conversion he did was amazing. The banjo has great tone due to his knowledge of how to build the neck for the banjo to have great tone. He harvested old inlays from a tenor neck and did a masterful job in matching it up with that old Ball Bearing Pot. The banjo plays so easy and sounds so nice. It has that old world sound with a bit of snap but dry like a fine Cabernet. I so appreciate folks like John whose whole life is dedicated to excellence. As Spinoza said. "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare". John certainly encompasses that statement.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

This is my third experience with Chris Cioffi. I had sent him a banjo that I liked the feel of and wanted Chris to work it over. I decided to use the neck and resonator from this banjo and have Chris build the pot for it, new stainless frets, neck heel reconstruction, neck set, bone nuts, and some repairs done where I split the fingerboard near the nut trying to remove it myself. Anyway, long story short, as usual Chris far exceeded my expectations on quality of workmanship and it was very much worth the wait. This little banjo turned out to be the best sounding and playing bluegrass banjo I've ever owned, hands down, and is pretty much in the same ballpark tonally as my treasured late 30's Gibson 11 conversion. This banjo has the maple sound, and the 11 has the mahogany sound. I could have saved myself a lot of money and headache in the past if I knew what I know now, and just had Chris do my banjo building for me. Pricing is very fair, and no one else can do as good a job as Chris Cioffi.
I am a happy camper once again. Now I'm going to just play the durn things and stop wasting money trying to get the best sounding banjo around. Now I have 2 that I am completely satisfied and absolutely thrilled with. I believe they are up there with banjos that would have an extra zero on the price tag.
Thanks, Chris. I hope some day you will be known for who you really are...the real deal!

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I had Ron refret my old rb100 with new wire. And, man it made a huge differance. I have lost all my buzing issues and my note are a lot clearer. Ron has been my go to guy whenecer I have questions in general as well. He does outstanding work and I highily recomend him to anyone. The best part he will explain what does to your things to make you are getting what you want. He is a down to eath person and I will be going back to him in the future.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Last year (2012) when we lost so many our Bluegrass heroes I decided I wanted to build a banjo in honor of my favorite of them all, Earl Scruggs. I also wanted to build something a bit different and somewhat customized. I found a great deal on a pot assembly (Bill Stokes Old Wood rim, JLS#4 gold tone ring and all quality Gold Plated hardware). Once I had the pot assembly, I then had to search for a neck/resonator and the remaining parts. After much research here on BHO I was fortunate to find that Don Bryant was only about 1.5 hours from me. I contacted Don and met at his shop to discuss my project and what I'd want done. One of my goals was to keep the banjo as close to pre-war specs as possible and Don knows this in great detail. We all know Earl had many different necks on that original Granada over the years, but I decided on what most people remember his banjo to have - Hearts & Flowers inlay. Don literally has a virtual menu of options to choose from. After much discussion I decided to commission Don to build the neck. I went with Mahogany reso and neck with the V and Speed neck options. Again, I was interested in experimenting somewhat as well and Don had some sample necks to help me decide. As others have said, Don did an absolute wonderful job on this neck and reso and it is simply beautiful craftsmanship. I provided Don all the other parts I needed for the banjo and Don put everything together and set it up like I wanted. I've had the banjo a few weeks and it is starting to settle in nicely. The feel and playability of the neck is really just amazing.
I could probably type a lot more about this project, but the short answer is that Don is someone I 100% recommend for your banjo building needs. He was honest and I was absolutely under no obligation if I didn't like something. Thanks again to Don for the hard work and time you put into this project that produced a beautiful banjo that I'll enjoy for many years.

Thanks Don!

Chad

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I bought a Barry Sholder gourd banjo and really like it! It is very well made, looks so good and the price was right in my budget! Barry called and we visited about the banjo, he is very willing to work with the customer. Overall, this is a very good banjo and I get compliments on it all the time about its look and tone! Thanks Barry!
Paul Siebert

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

Outstanding craftsmanship and tone; as close to perfection as is humanly possible. And I am speaking from personal experience. See the 2012 and 3/2013 review of the Wreath banjo.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Wandering the halls at SPBGMA, I found Chris working on banjo repairs. This being a rare sight in my area, I got him to revive my RK 80 from its dead state caused by a rim and tone ring problem; and he did so even with limited time and tools. (I brought the banjo to Nashville intending to sell.) I will keep it - it still plays as good as the day he fixed it. His attention to detail and precision work with an evident knowledge of Banjoism led me to declare him as the sole source for my RK and Stelling setups and repairs. Great work and a fair price. See you again, Chris!!

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Ron helped a customer out of mine who was completing his first "build". He assembled some great parts and wanted a partially completed neck to try and complete himself. He asked me to build it but I was just too covered up and didn't want to make him wait a long time for me to finally get to it (which has happened occasionally with other customers).
I recommended Ron to him and gave Ron a call with all the details about the neck and what the customer wanted. Ron jumped on the job quickly and everything was done exactly as specified. The neck looked great and the guy was thrilled to get it so quickly.
Ron's work is first rate. Its nice to have a fellow professional luthier who will help out like this and is willing to take on such custom projects. I highly recommend him to anyone needing quality work at good prices, with great customer service.
The guy is now playing the banjo and is really tickled with the neck. He's not a BHO member, so I send this for him (and me).

Overall Rating

10

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Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

John you did a beautiful job repairing the Banjo neck on my Deering Golden era II Thanks ever so much it looks just like brand new
Bill Scutt

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

was having a little trouble getting my old banjo back to sounding right again,, i tinkered with it and it just wasn't there.. so i dropped it off at johns and told him to go through it and do what he could,,, i could not believe how much better it was after he did his thing. it was back to its old self and sounding great again.. i would highly reccommend him to anyone needing a set up or any kind of work done,, he is very reasonable and knows his stuff. and a great guy to boot!

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

On Saturday, February 9, 2013 I made a trip to visit John Boulding to have him set-up my Gibson rb 75 banjo. I began by contacting John through his web site at note-ablerepair.com to schedule a time in which I could come. He replied back to me on that same day and proceeded to schedule a time to meet. I live about 2-1/2 hours away and drove to his shop on Saturday. Upon arrival, I immediately knew I had made the right choice. John is not only a professional luthier, but a person who cares about his work and wants to see his customers fully satisfied. My banjo had never been set-up by a professional luthier and the work that John completed is second to none. I was having trouble with my third string buzzing and the sound I was getting from my banjo was not what I thought it could be. John performed a complete set-up by doing adjustments to the tone ring fit, setting my rods to neutral, trimming the heel on my neck to lower the action, adjusting the truss rod, setting the bridge placement, setting the head and tailpiece tension, and re-orienting the 5th capo spike. He also corrected my nut slots which were to deep by filling those. After all of this work was completed, my banjo sounded better than it ever has. Not only did he fix all of these problems, he also explained step-by-step on what he was doing and showed me how to make adjustments myself in order to keep my banjo sounding great. If any of you are having similar problems that I had and need help, you should definitely contact John. If I ever need any additional help or banjo set-up work, John will be the first and only man I call for the job. I want to thank John for all of the work he did and for walking me through each step, he is a first class guy.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Chris Cioffi did a amazing job on the set up on my RB 2 pre - war banjo , this was a free set up offered in Robin Smith suite at SPBGMA as a value added service .
Chris Cioffi is a very Talented luthier along with being a great person.
We all chase that Pre- War sound and i had it in my banjo and did not know it because the banjo needed work. I actually planned to sell this banjo. After the free set up this banjo woke up and the Pre-war sound came out ( I decided not to sell).
I can not explain in this review what Chris did to this banjo or the dramatic improvement in the sound.
All I can say is Chris Cioffi woke up a sleepy banjo and in turn woke up a sleepy banjo player .This taught me a lesson on the importance of a proper set and maintenance of your instruments.
Chris did an outstanding job and became a good friend.
Highly recommend.
Dick Kane

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Hi all, just real quick because I hate to type but I just witnessed something amazing, a friend and I just went down to the SPBGMA event in Nashville and one of the things we were hoping to do was sale his prewar 2 and although it was a decent banjo it didn't speak to him and he was going to sale it and pick up something else, I said lets stop by Robin Smiths suite and say hello and check out some of his banjos and there we met Chris and we decided to have him look it over and do some setup work, holy crap, it is a totally different banjo, a monster that we actually compared to a original flathead 18 that Robin had there and I could not believe it was the same banjo, just unbelievable, well he is keeping his banjo and although I take pride in my own setup work, Chris is on a different level he is a special guy that you can tell he loves what he does, I'm sending him one of my troublesome banjos this week, don't hesitate to give him a call, he knows magic . Tony Arcuri

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I consider myself fortunate to have had a great experience purchasing a renovated classic banjo from Carl. Carl's web store Second Life Banjos (http://www.secondlifebanjo.com) is aptly named as he breathes new life into quality banjos from days gone by. I am now the proud owner of a Vega style 5 string that includes restored vintage components as well as parts fabricated in Carl's workshop. Carl is clearly a talented luthier and went to extreme lengths to meet my needs and I was more than pleased. He kept in constant e-touch as he added capo spikes and finalized the set up. He packed the banjo extremely well for shipping and followed up ensure that all was well. If you want to purchase a banjo from someone who has a real passion for what he does, is very talented and really cares about customer service then I highly recommend that you get on touch with Carl.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I just received my new walnut FL-5 Banjo neck from Ron Coleman. Ron and I have been talking for a while about making this full length neck. It has a Cocabola finger board, flying eagle inlay and Bell's peg head with a Bell's logo on it. It strings up like a guitar, but plays just as a Banjo usually plays. It takes a little getting used to-the 3rd,4th, and 5th string tuners being in a different place. What I like about it is when capoing it's just like a guitar. No 5th string to spike or no 5th tuner to getting in the way, means less tuning and faster playing. recommend to everyone to give Ron a chance to make you one of these necks. You won't be disappointed. Thanks, Ron for an awesome neck! Jimmy Bell, Tupelo, MS

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I had a Great experience dealing with Ron Coleman Who Just recently Built me a really nice banjo To my spec and price range . Ron did everything to the letter that he said he would do. Timeline and Budget , Ron put together a banjo that I will have for a liftime . All the parts were high end didn't skimp one bit . Ron is a great builder and a man of his word , He's the real deal Folks . Thank you Ron for a great Job .

Overall Rating

10