Gold Tone: EBM

Submitted by Johnnie on 6/8/2006

Where Purchased: TRE'45, Norway

Year Purchased: 2006
Price Paid: 6990 (NOK) historic exchange rates / currency converter

Sound

I'm playing in a countryband were I use the banjo on a handful of songs. I have a Gold Tone OB-250 that I have used with a condenser microphone, and have had some feedback/monitor problems playing with a loud band.
When I saw this electric banjo I thought it looked good, and convinient to bring along to gigs.

The banjo has a singlecoil telecaster neck pickup and the Gold Tone SMP humbucker pickup under the head. The banjo have two volume knobs and one toneknob. The DI sound straight in the board is kind of weak and bassy. You have to boost it and tweak the EQ a bit to make it sound like a banjo. The toneknob on the banjo is only a treble roll off and my opinion is that it has no practical use.

The humbucker does actually sound very good when the EQ is tweaked. The middle and neck position has a more electric banjo sound and has a bit more gain too. I haven't tried it though my Fender cranking out Smoke On The Water yet though :-)

The acoustic sound is thin with not much bottom or warm midrange, but is quite loud enough for practising together with a couple of guitars in the living room.

For my use in a band situation this banjo is perfect soundwise. The lack of a natural banjo sound is so minimal in such a setting that it does the job perfect. For an entirely acoustic bluegrass session, or for recording I'll use the real deal.

Sound Rating: 8

Setup

The banjo was setup perfect for me.
I've added one spike for the 5th string since we play a lot of songs i A.
The scale is 27-3/8" and is longer than my other banjo. It feels a bit strange at first but it's easy to adapt to.

Setup Rating: 10

Appearance

The big visual difference from the Gold Tone EBT is that the EBT looks like telecaster and this EBM looks like a big mandolin with a small banjo "head".
The metalparts are gold, but the gold finish is not of a very high quality.
The rest of the finish was blemishfree and looked good.

I 've got lot of comments from people that it looks good. It's an unusual instrument and noone has never seen one before, so it's fun to carry along to gigs.

It's a Korean made banjo, and they're good at making instruments looks good, but it's of course not a top of the line instrument. I'll call it a nice workhorse.

Appearance Rating: 8

Reliability

The gold finish of the hardware will wear of soon, but the rest of the finish is OK.
The pickups and knobs and output jack seems all right.
The tuners feels smooth.
I'll use it on a gig with no backup with no problem.

Reliability Rating: 8

Customer Service

No experience

Customer Service: not rated

Components

This banjo should have had an integrated preamp and an active toneknob. But you can get the sound tweaking the EQ on the mixing board or use a graphic equalizer like one of the BOSS guitar pedals.

The rest of the banjo reminds me of a telecaster, plug in and play it.

Components Rating: 7

Overall Comments

For me this banjo is perfect, but it's best in an electric band.
It doesn't have the real banjo look, but that can be both good and bad.
For me it's a gigging tool and if it breaks I can get me an identical electric banjo without trouble.

It's not the best banjo in the world but a fun little instrument made for a certain use, It's not for everybody, but have you considered an electric banjo, try to find one and try it out.

Overall Rating: 8