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Old 05-30-2010, 10:52 PM
drjordan drjordan is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 398
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There are a lot of great banjo makers. A lot of big names are playing Huber like Ron Block, Jim Mills, Sammy Shelor, Chris Pandolfi, Cia Cherryholmes, Dale Perry, and Steve Huber is a good banjo player himself playing for Kenny & Amanda Smith when he quit to build banjos. Yates also makes a great banjo; Ron Stewart plays and sells his signature model...Justin Moses plays them and Jason Davis played a Yates until Sonny Osborne gave him an Osborne Chief which is another top tier banjo. The Osborne Chief is made to Sonny Osborne specs by Frank Neat. Frank Neat carves a lot of necks for conversion banjos, and, as I understand, makes a killer banjo. A lot of the top banjos (including the Osborne Chief and Neat banjos) are made with wood and rims from Jimmy Cox who also makes high end banjos. Gibson can still make a good banjo, but, just like their guitars, they're overpriced and the qc is lacking. OME, Ode, Deering, Sullivan, Stelling, Crafters of Tennessee, and Bales all make banjos worth checking out. Most of those are pretty classic banjos. Nechville makes some really cool products with a very unique design. Scott Vestal makes Stealth banjos that are also pretty cool. My vote, without seeing or playing it prior, would be a Huber or Yates. Although when I'm ready to buy a high end banjo myself, I will be strongly considering a Frank Neat.
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P.S. That's what the alphabet would look like if there was no Q and R.
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