The kit arrived promptly, despite having to be shipped across the Atlantic. There was some initial confusion when I opened the package because the assembly instructions were marked "Basic Banjo Kit", which is the name of the A-scale instrument also sold by Backyard Music. Apparently, the instruction book is the same for both instruments. The kit came in a strong plastic bag, big enough for the assembled banjo, which I have kept for extra protection if I ever carry it in a gig bag and there is any likelihood of it getting wet.

Assembly was straightforward. How much time you want to put into this depends entirely on the degree of finish and decoration that you want to apply. I decided to stain the neck a "dark oak" colour. The pot was already painted black and was too dark to stain to the same shade, so I painted it with some wood primer paint, then followed that up with two coats of the same wood stain that I used on the neck. I painted the plywood head with three coats of an off-white satin paint of the kind you might use indoors on wood.

The neck of the banjo is completely devoid of fret markers. I got in touch with David Cross at Backyard Music about this and he recommended either putting brass nails in as side markers or inlaying pearl disks into the fretboard. I have also seen suggestions where people have marked the fretboard by making burn marks in the wood or by using a silver marker pen. I tried the marker pen, but was very unhappy with the result, so I sanded it off and decided to inlay some pearl dots. I thought I'd go into this process in detail for this review, to save anyone who is building one of these from having to research this again. Inlaid pearl fret markers add a lot to the aesthetics of the instrument and the process is much easier than I thought it would be. Bear in mind I am not a luthier, but this is what worked for me. To do this, you will need:

- mother-of-pearl dot inlay fretboard markers. These can be bought cheaply on Amazon, E-bay or elsewhere.
- pencil
- ruler or straight edge
- sticky-backed paper (Post-It notes, or similar)
- a spike of some sort
- drill
- a suitable drill bit, of the same size as the mother-of-pearl dots. The type of bit is very important! You need a bit designed to cut clean holes in wood, without leaving a ragged edge. The Forstner bit is ideal, but I was unable to find one small enough locally. I explained my requirements in a hardware store and bought an appropriate bit. Whatever you do, do not use a bit designed to drill metal, as this will cause unsightly damage to the edge of the hole.
- superglue
- tissue paper

Some sources advise putting the dot into the fretboard so that it sticks up slightly and then sanding it down. While I was prepared to do this, I found it wasn't necessary.

This is the procedure I followed:

1) Determine the position of the dots. There are various possibilities for where to place these, but I used what is now the standard positioning of frets 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 (2 dots), 15 and 17.

2) For each position, do the following:
   - mark the centre. Take a piece of sticky-back paper and stick it on to the space between two frets. Draw a diagonal pencil line from the end of one of the metal frets to the opposite end of the adjacent fret. Then draw another diagonal line on the other side so that the lines cross in the centre of the space between the two frets. Use the spike to punch a hole through the centre of the paper into the wood, to mark the position and serve as a guide for the drill. Remove the paper.
   - Drill carefully into the wood, stopping regularly, blowing out the sawdust and fitting the dot to see how much deeper you need to go. In six cases out of eight I was able to stop with the dot level with the surface of the fretboard, but in two cases I drilled a bit too deep. I just put a bit of sawdust back under the dot, to raise it up to the surface level.
   - Glue the dot. To do this, I put a line of superglue around the edge of the dot. This gets absorbed into the tiny gap between the dot and the hole, gluing it firmly into place. Wipe off the excess superglue with a piece of tissue paper, using a quick motion to avoid supergluing tissue paper to the fretboard.
   - The 12th fret is marked with two dots. To get the positions of each, use the above procedure, but draw each diagonal line from the halfway position of one fret to the end of the other, so you end up with "XX" on the space between the two frets.

It might be a good idea to test this procedure first, to get comfortable with it. You can do this on the wooden part that lies under the head and which will be invisible when the banjo is assembled.

The dark oak wood stain and pearl fret markers give an almost antique appearance to the instrument now that it is finished (see photos on my profile page).

The banjo has a beautiful "woody" tone and is fairly quiet; about the same volume as you would get from a small guitar or ukulele. But for my purposes of quiet practice when not at home, this lack of volume is a distinct advantage; I don't want the windows rattling when I just want to practice unobtrusively. It would work fine for solo playing in a quiet setting, but would not be loud enough for jamming with other instruments.

Another point to be aware of is that this instrument is a real featherweight. Mine weighs in at a mere 840 grams (less than 2 pounds). This is a big advantage for travelling.

The very high overall rating I have given this instrument should be seen in the context of its very low price and the specific niche that it occupies. It's not going to replace my GoldTone, which has a much richer and more powerful sound, but it does provide an opportunity for me to get some practice on a full-scale banjo in places where I might not want to take my usual instrument.