Hey guys, just wondering what everyone thinks about GT. On a second note, what do you think will happen to OME now?
Edited by - banjo_man_679 on 08/08/2024 20:24:30
I live within two hours of Gold Tone. I’ve had them work on my instruments (banjos and dobros. )
I have sat in their upstairs picking/ demo room and played multiple instruments. The new banjos are great. The folks there are great to work with. I will continue to support them. In regards to the OME brand it is my understanding that they are going to be made there. I would expect the same quality build as before the the acquisition.
I think they play fast and loose with intellectual property, esp. with the design of tailpieces for some reason.
I have seen their "repair shop" do really stupid things, like take a classic era banjo, cut off the dowel and add rods while doing a pretty hack job of filling the square rim holes. That is their idea of a neck reset.
They have done similar things when they put necks on rims that should have a dowel rod neck.
I have had one previous experience with them. When I was still very new I bought what I thought was a banjo built with a clad rim and dowel stick from them. The cladding was paper thin and could be dented with my fingernail-- like foil. The dowel stick was fake, instead of glued in it was screwed to a lag bolt. This configuration would never actually work and the first one I got broke off. They sent me a "dowel" to replace it and I decided to exchange the full banjo.
The replacement was built with significantly cheaper parts, the traditional brackets were now cheap hex brackets (found on the lowest banjos) and the rim was even cheaper feeling. The "calf head" was thick as a shoe sole and felt like it was coated in rubber. The frets look liked they were leveled with a rasp.
I sold that at a significant loss just to get rid of it. I consider that tuition.
That was almost 20 years ago and since then they moved from buying parts from Korea and assembling to buying complete banjos from China. I have no doubt that their Gibson style clone banjos are fine instruments as well as their "old time" banjos which are basically built on the Gibson formula in construction.
They seem to be dialing in on higher quality now, just don't use them for anything outside of "Gibson" pattern banjos.
It appears that they're providing their customers good quality products with reasonable prices. What's not to like?
I have no problem with them. They are providing more than decent quality instruments to beginners, and some of their new models compete fine with banjos many times the price. They are great people to work with as well. I agree that their newer offerings seem better than some of the older stuff.
I've had two new gold tone banjos now and they've both been fine for the price. I don't think the fit and finish on the OT-800LN was quite as good as my rk-r36, but that is getting nit picky and pretty apples to oranges. I will say for a ~$1500 instrument the tuners were a disappointment on that one
My immediate thought is this: BHO users that have business ties or financial interest in a certain company should be required to disclose this relationship and have a subheading in their user title that clearly indicates this relationship (similar to where moderators are noted as mods, company reps could be noted as such in their posts).
Aside from that, it seems to me that Gold Tone makes decent import banjos. Objectively, their products are a step above most other PacRim banjo brands. I also really like that they're willing to make limited-run instruments that probably don't have much market value, see their "folkternative" products for what I mean (e.g. cello-banjos, dobro-banjos, electric banjos).
One thing I don't understand is why Gold Tone seems to be so ashamed of the fact that they're a banjo importer rather than banjo builder. They sell decent products that are made overseas, and that's fine. But for some reason, they pretend to be a US-based banjo builder. I don't understand it, and I think it's a bit dishonest, but you could say that about most marketing schemes I suppose.
Regarding OME, nobody can predict the future. However, it appears that they're creating an entirely new shop for OME banjos, and they're just using the Gold Tone distribution network to market them. This is a positive sign that the quality will remain high. One thing is yet to be seen is how the quality of components in GoldTone/Ome banjos will change. If Gold Tone opts to use their current hardware suppliers for OME banjos (which makes sense from a manufacturing/business standpoint), that would be a significant downgrade in quality.
Edited by - KCJones on 08/08/2024 11:50:55
There's only one reason to go thousands of miles away and manufacture in an economy which has labor standards so bad they could be called 'economic slavery'...
...To give you a great deal on a quality banjo!
I am going to assume that the product line has improved over the years, last time I visited a GT dealer here in the UK I played many in stock banjos and each and every one of them was unpleasant and felt cheap, that however was maybe twenty years ago, perhaps it is time I checked them out again although I am not in the market for a new instrument any more, many here give high praise to the line so, who knows today ? I too have seen some odd things that make little sense to me on their banjos, I still do not like that huge GOLDTONE logo on the headstock though !
I own a Twanger. Its my daily picker. My only complaint is the plating wore off in year 1. Its as good as anything Ive played.
I agree. I have a twanger and it’s a the best sounding instrument in my stable, including Gibson, Davis, Neat and Recording King. I ate a lot of crow over GT. but it was worth every bite I ate. I do wish the fret work was a little better but overall GoldTone is handling business.
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