Blog Shop Review

Deering Goodtime Banjo
From Deering
List Price: $449.00
Price: $339.00

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by Woodwind and Brasswind

4 new or used available from $339.00

Average customer review:

Customer Reviews

What a great banjo
I bought a used goodtime 2, removed the flange, resonator, tighten the head, changed the strings, and WOW, what a great sound. I can not let it down. I am a clawhammer/frailing banjo player. I have an old open back ODE, a Jubilee Open back, a Baldwin Long neck, and they all sound great. The Goodtime feels so natural, almost like an extension of my hands for playing. I noticed that the sound quality has improved over time (a few months). I changed the tuners to more traditional geared banjo tuners and now it is a great sounding banjo.

Good job Deering.

Volksbanjo
I agree with all the reviews. I decided to try learning banjo at age 53, after playing guitar for 30 years and mandolin and fiddle for 2 years. I took classes at the Old Town SChool of Folk Music in Chicago, and rented a Goodtime from them through a couple class terms. My family wanted to buy me a good banjo for my birthday and I said I’d rather just pay the rest of the cost and keep the Goodtime. I’m no master player, and I’m still learning, but this is a good solid banjo and sounds and plays great.

Pros:
* It’s light and well balanced so it’s a pleasure to hold and play.
* It has good solid feel and quality construction, with heavy nickel plating on the hardware, nice light laquer, and clear maple in the neck.
* The neck and frets are dead on balls accurate so the notes sound good all the way up the neck.
* The tuning machines (open gear guitar style) are modest, but don’t slip and work fine. Fifth string has a good geared tuner.
* The tone is surprisingly loud for an open back banjo, so I get plenty of volume doing Scruggs style, and even have to damp it a bit with some folded foam behind the head for clawhammer style.
* There’s a nice harmonic point right where your hand falls for clawhammer, which gives a nice meaty “pop/ring” sound for clawhammer.
* It’s relatively humidity- and cold weather- tolerant without needing a lot of retuning.

Cons:
* No arm rest! I didn’t mind it so much for Scruggs style but got bruises from the brackets when I switched to clawhammer, until I bought an armrest (They have them at Elderly Instruments for $18, and it’s easy to attach with a small wrench by loosening two of the brackets and sliding it through them.)
* The already-mentioned cheesy peg head design, which some have called “Art Deco” but I call Ronco. But what the hell. You could always go for the Special model that has a more traditional shaped peghead.
* The nut has sharp corners which can make for sore hands when you hit it a lot with the pad of your index finger. But maybe that’s a sign of poor form on my part.

All in all, I see no need for a fancier banjo for quite some time. I did fine with a Sears Silvertone guitar for ten years, so maybe I’m easy to please. But maybe I’m unimpressed by showing off wicked instruments too. (My mom had a pre-war Gibson five string but my grandpa donated it to the USO during WWII. So people bragging about their Gibsons just stirs up pain from before I was even born, and I slowly back away.)

By the way, I agree that it’s best if you can to buy a banjo from a friendly neighborhood music store, where they can help you get it set up and adjusted. The Different Strummer at the Old Town School beat the price here by quite a bit, cause they sell a ton of these things for Deering, to their students.

Nice instrument for the money
Bought one of these as a raw beginner a few months
ago, and am very happy with it. My main concern
in buying a banjo, as an amateur, was to avoid a
crummy “student” instrument. This ain’t it.

The Deering is well made, sounds great, and plays
really well. I’d buy this model again in a heartbeat.