2017 Recording King RKT-05 Dirty 30s Tenor Banjo

I took this nearly-new tenor in trade and, for an instrument that's only $250 new, it's really quite a good banjo. It has construction similar to an old Gibson Oriole with a single coordinator rod setup and an equally-fast, comfortable neck. The 11" rim lacks a tonering but the neck does have a trussrod and the headstock sports geared, guitar-style pegs for easier tuning. The factory-installed head is a FiberSkyn, so as you'd expect the tone at the moment is fundamental and fairly mellow. I suspect that if an Elite/Renaissance head or frosted-top/back head was installed this thing would be a lot more chipper and bright.

My only work was to nudge the setup on-spec and it now plays great. This was briefly owned by a young student who upgraded to an old, resonator tenor banjo through me. It's been kept nice and tidy and has its own, Superior-branded gigbag.

Specs are: 23" scale, 1 1/8" nut width, 13/16" string spacing at the nut, 1 5/16" spacing at the bridge, 11" rim, and 2 5/8" side depth. The neck has a mild C-shape with a flat fretboard. Strings appear to be similar to gauges 30w, 20w, 14, 9. I've set the action for 1/16" at the 12th fret -- spot-on.

These come with an nice, tall, Grover-style 5/8" bridge.