Submitted by normoyle (see all reviews from this person) on 7/5/2006

Where Purchased: Murphy's Music

Year Purchased: 1993
Price Paid: 450.00 ($US)

Sound

Banjo sounds decent in the open positions and up to the 5th fret, after that it starts to lose volume and tone. Nice warm sound on the lower end and pretty good pop on the higher end, but again up the neck it loses alot!

Sound Rating: 5

Setup

Dont really remember or know, this was my first banjo and i did'nt know anything about setup at the time. I believe it came with a 1/2 inch bridge which i changed to a 5/8 but other than that i did'nt chnge too much

Setup Rating: 5

Appearance

Banjo looks very nice, Its a copy of a Gibson bowtie. Has nice inlay on the headstock and back of the resonator.

Appearance Rating: 5

Reliability

The Finish on the banjo is a very nice quality and all the chrome and other hardware has lasted for the whole time i've owned this banjo. Some of the other components are kinda cheap. I would have liked to have seen dual coordinator rods (this banjo has a single). I would'nt gig with this banjo. just dosent have enough sound, It's seems dependable enough, but you have to play it perfectly to sound decent and even then it's a stretch.

Reliability Rating: 7

Customer Service

never dealt with em, dont think i'd even bother trying if i had a problem. It's asian built.

Customer Service: 1

Components

Plan on upgrading the tuners, they are of poor quality and do not hold tune for long. evrything else is decent enough

Components Rating: 3

Overall Comments

This is an OK banjo for a beginer. Good for someone who wants to test the waters and see if their going to stick with it or not, but you'll need to ugrade to a better instrument after awhile. I actually think the poor playing quality of this banjo improved my playing. It made play everything perfectly, you can't get away with misfreting a note on this banjo, it just dosent ring if you do. If you can get one cheap for under 200 or 250 would be ok for a beginer.

Overall Rating: 5