2013 Washburn B-7 Openback Banjo

Sound clip soon!

I reviewed this a while back when my customer bought it new and brought it down to me for a good setup and railroad spike (5th string capo) installs. My opinion is unchanged: it's a good, practical, entry-level old-time banjo and, yes, the construction has held up under a lot of play (though condition is, really, fairly close to as-new). It's just been traded-in (the fellow upgraded to the 1925 Vega I had in the shop) and now awaits its next victim -- err, student? Backpacker? Campfire player?

I just did a light setup on it and added a compensated bridge so it'd intonate correctly up the neck. If you're in the market for a 5-string -- it's cheap, functional, has a sound roughly comparable to your average 30s student banjo (on the mellow and warm side), and has geared pegs all around plus five frets' worth of railroad spikes for easy capo maneuvers into odd keys.