Fender: FB-59

Submitted by jasper4564 on 7/11/2009

Where Purchased: ebay

Year Purchased: 2009
Price Paid: 729.00 ($US) (bought USED)

Sound

i lowered the action , installed a custom bridge, adjusted the angle of the tailpeice , put vega light guage strings on it, tightened the head, and installed a bone nut, and now it sounds like a gibson, great tone , very loud, bright and crisp, notes very good up and down the neck, i am impressed with this banjo after just little set up, i have owned multiple gibson banjo's and others as well , this banjo has potential,if you play it stock it sounds like crap

Sound Rating: 8

Setup

set up was awful as usual, but even gibson doesn't do well with set up

Setup Rating: 1

Appearance

Beautiful walnut neck and resonator, i like the maple strip in the back of the neck , i just wish they had done the same with the resonator,like maple rings or something, gold plating looks good , but i can tell that it is not very durable and will probably start to wear off quicker than other more expensive banjo's

Appearance Rating: 8

Reliability

gold plating looks good , but i can tell that it is not very durable and will probably start to wear off quicker than other more expensive banjo's, the finish on the wood is gorgeous

Reliability Rating: 7

Customer Service

never dealt with the waranty , haven't had any problems yet

Customer Service: not rated

Components

the nut, and the bridge are junk, the tailpeice could be better , the thumb screws and resonator hardware are junk, the tuners are cheap, other than that everything else looks good, the nut, and bridge are usually junk on anything except high end banjol's anyway, but the tailpeice, the resonator hardware, and the tuners are a disapointment, but that can all be upgraded with a little cash, and hey, the price is great for a banjo that has this much potential

Components Rating: 7

Overall Comments

over all for the price of these banjo's they are great and the cheap components can be replaced , and you still have a great banjo for a great price , i will wind up spending about $275.00 on all the upgrades , but i do my own set up work so that is just for parts, i paid $729.00 for it in like new condition, and that comes to a total of$1,004.00 , and this banjo sounds better than my Gibson RB-250

Overall Rating: 8