Buckbee 5 string  Reviews

Buckbee 5 string submitted 5/12/2005 Submitter Unknown Where Purchased Ebay Year Purchased 2005 Price Paid 50 ($US) (bought USED) Sound This banjo has a really rich deep plunky sound. Very old timey sound. Sound Rating 8 Setup This banjo had no tuners, strings, tailpiece or a bridge on it when I bought it. I put on planetary tuners, 1/2" high bridge and nylon strings and a no-knot tailpiece. The action on the neck is a bit high, I'm still playing with it. The head is very old and appears to be calfskin. Setup Rating not rated Appearance This is a great looking banjo. It's very old (late 1800's - early 1900's era). The banjo head (calf skin?) is very old and very worn and very striking in apperance. The rim has 38 brackets and the neck is a short scale neck with no inlay dots. Everytime I walk into a room with this banjo, all eyes turn to it and everone want's to hold it and try it out. Appearance Rating 8 Reliability So far so good. I basically bought a neck (which is straight) and a rim with a calfskin head that was about 100 years old or so and added the rest. What I got had held up pretty good. Reliability Rating 8 Customer Service Bought used, n/a Customer Service not rated Components The best component is the head. It's old, worn, looks really cool and has a great rich deep sound to it. Components Rating 8 Overall Comments I purchased this banjo as a project banjo. I was looking for something new but could not find anything that tickled my fancy, so I bought something old instead. I'd recommend all banjo players to buy an old fixer-upper and mess around. I learned a lot about banjos just putting this one together. And it wasn't hard to do either. And at the end of the day, even my doubting wife was won over by this great piece of american history. I bought this banjo for $50, put about $80 worth of parts on it (I got good tuners) and am totally happy with the whole expirience. Overall Rating 10