Vangoa 5 String Banjo 26 Inch, MINI Travel Banjo Beginner Kit with Remo Head, Open Back & Closed Solid Back with beginner Kit, Comfortable Carrying Bag

This is a really good instrument for beginners. It’s solid quality and has a good weight so it feels like a more expensive banjo. The accents make it look really nice for the price. It won’t sound as good as a high-end banjo but it’s definitely good enough for someone who’s just starting out.

This Banjo is gorgeous!! First of all, it was carefully packaged and wrapped. It came in a card board box, then in it's case, then in a bag and all the strings were wrapped in waxrd paper. It comes with so many extras like a tuner, shoulder strap, finger picks, extra strings and a wall holder!! The banjo sounds so great and I can't wait to start my lessons. It's a beautiful instrument at an AMAZING price.

I'm an advanced banjo player and have owned and played many banjos over the decades. I bought the Vangoa mini because my grandsons, age 8 and 5, have expressed a desire to play but aren't big enough to play my full-sized banjos. In other words, this is to be a starter banjo for these children, and as such it seems to me to be ideal. The banjo arrived fully set up; just needed to be tuned to be fully playable. On line there is information about setting the bridge and adjusting the tension rod, but none of that was necessary. This instrument was ready to play out of the box. Some reviews indicate that purchasers were beginners who bought this as an adult starter instrument. It is NOT recommended for that purpose: the spacing on the strings is not ideal for adult-size fingers, especially for a novice player. An advanced player might want this as a novelty instrument, but I see it as best for a child, and for this price, WOW! I couldn't ask for more. The tone, by the way, is high pitched, plunky, and perfectly acceptable. I'm delighted with this purchase. Highly recommended for the purposes described above.

I decided on the Vangoa because I love the resonance of mahogany. A Gold Tone Plucky was just more than I wanted to spend, plus I have a Ob 250-At that I love. The Vangoa is very nicely constructed and easy to setup, The sound it produces is very nice. Of course not as full with the volume of a full sized 5-string, but nice and clean. I wish it had better tuners, but for the price I can"t complain. My only complaint was the tailpiece, but I had read about it. Replaced it with a no knot I had. Would suggest if you buy spend about $20 for a no knot tailpiece.Enjoy,

My son was wanting to learn the banjo so I got him this and he loves it even more that its a banjolele. Sounds great. Built with live and quality. Would recommend to anyone

I got this for an upcoming trip on which it would be impractical to take a full-sized banjo. I didn't have high expectations for the Vangoa but it really surprised me! I'm a clawhammer player and the strings are spaced far enough apart that playing it is not a different experience for the right hand, which is where the rubber meets the road for what is a practice instrument. The width of the strings at the bridge is 1 11/16", which is exactly the same as a regular banjo.At the nut it unfortunately gets narrower than a regular banjo (13/16" versus 1"), but you can't have everything...certainly not at this price. It is still quite playable for the left hand. You may have to play some things you'd normally play with the left pinky with the ring finger instead; but since this is really just a keep-in-trim instrument it's not that big a deal.The playing experience for the picking or clawhammering hand is about the same as a full-size when it's tuned to C or B.The only beginner I would want to get this instrument is a very young child. A kid 10 and above, or an adult, should not be learning on this instrument, as the distance between the frets is way narrower than a full-size.There's some other goodies included--gig bag, strap, contact pickup (!), plastic thumb and plastic finger picks, an extra set of strings--which one might get some use from even if they found the instrument useless.In terms of use for other than a practice instrument, its voice and size make it a lot like a mandolin or a ukelele. Uke players would probably enjoy this banjo a lot. So it could certainly find its way into a player's arsenal as a novelty instrument.For what it is, to me it's great value for the money.

Pleased with the entire kit, started playing within two hours after opening the box. Tuning the first time can be difficult if you have never played a guitar before, since I had a tuner that got me started.. then I used the tuner supplied which worked well. No instructions on how to install the pick-up, but looked online and found out you install it on the interior of the Remo head, just beneath the bridge. Sounds great and the pick-up worked really well so I can use it in the recording studio. Overall - five stars!