My Pisgah Possum arrived today. It is now tuned up and I've had a chance to play it for an hour or so. What an absolutely great sounding banjo! It fits my needs and fills a hole in my banjo lineup quite nicely. Fit and finish are quite good. As noted earlier, I had this set up for three finger style playing, so the action is lower than normal. It could come down just a hair but is perfectly usable as-is.
I love the simple elegance of this banjo. No elaborate scroll work or peg head design. Everything just looks homemade, which is EXACTLY what I wanted! It'll go nicely with the Big Muddy mandolin I had made for me late last year and the guitar I had commissioned for me (also just received).
You may remember that I bought two Zachary Hoyt banjos a while back. It's hard to compare these since the two Hoyt banjos are 12" banjos with a tone ring. I'd say fit and finish are about the same. Tone wise, they ALL sound good to me. So, to me anyway, it's a bit of a washout. However, I did buy a third Hoyt banjo from Elderly Instruments a while back and it was NOT a great sounding banjo. It was about the most DULL banjo I have ever heard, even with tweaking the head and adding new strings. That one went back to Elderly for a refund. The third Hoyt was a wooden rim banjo, similar to the Pisgah, but it had a mahogany rim and cap. I think mahogany just simply isn't a great wood choice for a banjo rim, or at least it wasn't in that banjo.
So, what can I say about the Pisgah? Patrick is a great guy to work with and the transaction was very smooth. From ordering to completion was around 5 months if I recall correctly. I am very happy with this purchase and I don't see me buying any more banjos for a long, long time. Famous last words, right...?
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