Just posted a WTB in the Used Instrument forum, and I’m poking around online for a friend who is looking for a starter banjo for her 15-year-old daughter. She’s hoping to spend under $300.
I found one on craigslist: an Oscar Schmidt (which apparently is Washburn?) being offered for $275, including a hard case, CDs DVDs and instruction booklets.
Any info on this or other suggestions are greatly appreciated!!
For under $300 it’s going to be tough to find a good quality banjo, but for just a little more you can get a Recording King Madison open back which has been highly praised on the popular banjo board I go to for information.
I would suggest taking a look at the classified areas at www.banjohangout.org and www.mandolincafe.com also. Gold Tone (the CC-IT and the CC-Tenor) and Deering (Goodtime Tenor) both make decent starters in the $400 range, so finding one used for less than $300 is a good possibility.
Yeah, the Banjo Hangout (BHO as they call it) is a great place for banjo info. That was the board I was referring to but I didn’t know if posting a link to another forum was a faux pax or not. Thomaston is right about the Deering being highly spoken of. The only knock on the Deering is that aesthetically, the entry level model is a bit lacking, in the opinion of many. I know it came with guitar tuners rather than planetary tuners (which are normal for a banjo), but I may have read somewhere that they’ve changed that. I’m not sure if I’m remembering that correctly or not, but if they did, that’s a good thing. On the plus side (if you’re an American), the Deering is made in the US and every little bit we do to help this economy is a good thing as well. In any event, the BHO has a forum called “Shopping Advice” and the people there are incredibly knowledgeable. They eat banjos for breakfast.
Your friend can also get a feel for what’s out there by looking around on YouTube. A banjo dealer named Don Zepp has uploaded a ton of videos of different banjos so folks can get some idea of how they sound and how they differ. It’s a great resource.
Good luck to your friend.
Maybe this is a silly question, but is she looking for a 4 string or 5 string banjo?