Burghauser - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:05:26

I just bought The Pete Seeger Reader (ed. R. Cohen & J. Capaldi. Oxford UP, 2014). On p. 246, there’s an image of Pete’s living room. One of the banjos hanging on the wall seems to be a Goodtime. I’ve attempted (using such technology as I have) to magnify the relevant bit:

banjohangout.org/photo/171790

It got a bit stretched horizontally, but the neck, fingerboard, inlays, etc., do look distinctly Goodtime-ish, don’t you think?

revellfa - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:09:36

Yep, that's a bow tie inlay Goodtime with a scoop. They are some fine banjos.

bornold - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:10:01

I think it is a goodtime??

raharris - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:11:04

Hi - Close, but I don't think that's a Goodtime. The neck is the right color but it's wider (IMHO) and features different markings. And the headwear is far greater than I would expect of a Seeger "goodtime"!  Early on he made his own banjos, and he pioneered the long neck. Pete could play whatever he wanted to, and I just don't see him with a Deering.

kmwaters - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:13:10

I think I read where nowadays Deering is moving about 1000 Goodtimes a month. It's the staple. The universal starting point practically. They have marketed like pros that they are.

Burghauser - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:27:31

The apparent width of the neck is only because the photo got sort of stretched when I scanned it. You'll notice that Pete's face is also a little distorted in the image.

Old Man - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:29:11

That's understandable there good banjos.

darwinyarwin - Posted - 02/16/2014:  11:33:17

Here's a different picture of Pete's wall from pastorharry. It doesn't look like a Goodtime to me.

banjohangout.org/photo/170067

Burghauser - Posted - 02/16/2014:  12:07:36

But that's a different banjo. The one on your photo has no scoop; the one from The Pete Seeger Reader does.

Chadbanjo - Posted - 02/16/2014:  12:45:56

Looks like more hooks and the tension hoop is thicker, my goodtime had a very thin tension hoop...unless the older ones had gibson style tendion hoops.... I'd guess it isn't.

Common Tater - Posted - 02/16/2014:  14:09:31

Looking at the OP's photo, the head looks as if it has a Deering logo on it.  Looking at Pastor Harry's photo, the heel doesn't look quite like the Goodtime heel configuration.  Could it be a Goodtime prototype that they gave him before production began?

gabeeg - Posted - 02/16/2014:  14:22:08

That's a Good Time. Same bow tie inlay, same hook count, same heel, same 5th string peg knob (though hard to tell). None of this is proof...but all taken together, pretty solid imo.