Gold Tone Plucky Banjo (Five String, Vintage Brown)

I want to like this banjo - I own three other Gold Tone banjos and perform regularly with two of them, and I'm very satisfied with the quality of these. And I really like the concept of a short-scale banjo. It's very comfortable to hold, extremely lightweight, and playing in the higher key (tuned to C) gives an interesting take on my usual repertoire. A big plus is that the neck is indeed close to standard width.Unfortunately, the banjo's just not playable. The tuners are shockingly cheap, making it difficult to tune the strings. And the banjo falls out of tune almost instantly, so constant retuning is a necessity. I'd rather be spending the time playing!Gold Tone cheaped out on the brackets too - there just aren't enough of them. I wish instead of the shiny plastic head they'd have gone for something more suited for an open-back banjo, which is what this is. At least it's a Remo head. Still, something closer to a Fiberskyn would have given it a more tuneful sound.The banjo comes with its own gig bag, which I hadn't realized. But I don't see myself traveling with this, in fact, I'm probably sending it back and sticking to the banjos I already have. I suppose if you're willing to sink the money into upgrading the tuners and possibly the head, you'd end up with a decent instrument. But at this price, that doesn't quite seem worth it.Shame. Gold Tone has some really great, really innovative instruments ( I love my EB-5, and I have their Banjola as well). If they could take this banjo model more seriously, they'd probably come up with a really cool, playable instrument.

I bought this to stick in my suitcase and play on the road. It arrived very poorly set up - with a bent screw holding on the tailpiece that I needed to replace from the hardware store. The bridge was also so high that the banjo could not be played in tune. After an e-mail from the president of Goldtone responding to my questions (I was impressed), I lowered the bridge and the action and replaced with strings with nylagut. Now it has a nice quiet plunky sound and is in tune. I think it will do what I want, but I was not impressed with the quality control on how this came from Amazon. I own another Goldtone I thought was great.One year followup . . .The tuners became lose with time and I have replace them with high quality planetary tuners.I re-read the Goldtone website and found that they had specific recommendations for the string gauges when tuning in G or D. I changed to those and CAREFULLY PLACED THE BRIDGE by measuring. This is critical, as it is for all small instruments. Got very nice sound.I also wound up shortening the instrument another two inches by trimming the head. Now I have a very nice sounding instrument that fits into my carryon bag.Two year followup . . .I replaced the head with a renaissance head for a plunkier old timey sound. I added a small tab or leather to get rid of a buzz. NOW it sounds great. I use a small sponge to dampen the sound. I've replaced my nylagut with the recommended wire strings from Goldtone (I use a bronze one on the lowest note). It doesn't have that great ring of a good, full-size banjo, but it now lives up to its name. Playing this instrument has taught me more precision in my playing on a full sized one. And it still fits in my suitcase. I've traveled with it all around the world.

After getting it in the mail I tuned it and it sounded awful and wouldn't keep a tune. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, then I realized that it was missing a fourth of the nut so the low D was completely unsupported. A strange thing to be damaged in shipping, how does that even happen? It's a solid instrument, I guess, but many of the details (nut, tuners, strings, etc.) are pretty bad and can stand, or need, to be changed.

The size is perfect for our 7 year old son but it is impossible to get it to stay in tune for more than a day or two. If it would stay in tune I would give it five stars but as it is, it's miserable to use because it has the be tuned nearly every time it's played. It's also very difficult to tune due to the strings being so short. The fifth string is nearly impossible to tune correctly. I just try to get it close and we deal with it. I would not buy this banjo again. It should really only cost about $100 if that much.

I echo the other reviewer. The positives are the size, durability and I can play it clawhammer (I have not tried 3 finger yet). But does not stay in tune and the tuner on the drone string is miserable. I have seen posts which say to replace this tuner with a geared tuner. But in the end, it is for traveling on airplanes, crowded cars, etc. and it will work well for this purpose. (actually it is kind of fun to play).

I wrote the gold tone company to tell them their tuners slip and will not stay in tune. He said he will send new ones .