2022 Gold Tone AC-1 Openback 5-String Banjo

This is Gold Tone's take on resurrecting and improving the venerable Harmony Resotone banjo design. The original instrument had a molded, one-piece rim and so does this one, though the plastic this one is molded from yields a brighter, cleaner, better sound than the originals which can be a little woofy and over-mellow even if it's in a pleasant way.

Compared to many entry-level banjos of frustrating design, this one's neck-mounting hardware is far better, too, as it's got a single coordinator rod setup so there are double bolts at the neck joint (thus no neck swiveling happens as is true on the originals and a lot of cheap modern banjos) and the action is easily tweaked via adjusting the lower coordinator rod at the tailpiece side. The neck has an adjustable truss rod, too, and a zero fret setup at the nut means dialing action in is simple for the layman.

I even like the simple, satin-black finish throughout. They've kept the whole thing simple and efficient and fun to play and if you know the source material you get a chuckle, too. They even kept the "bumps" on the rim's bracket-band from where Harmony had originally made the mold (on their '50s banjos) to support double the amount of hooks and then later changed the mold to eliminate the extra holes.

Anyhow, I've given this a fresh restring, mild cleaning, compensated the bridge a little extra, and set it up so it's ready to go.

Repairs included: setup and cleaning.

Weight: 3 lbs 11 oz

Scale length: 26 1/8"

Nut width: 1 1/4"

Neck shape: slim-med C

Board radius: flat

Head diameter: 11”

Depth overall at rim: 2 1/2"

Rim wood: synthetic

Tonering: none

Bridge: rebony/maple 3-foot

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: nato

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 9s

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Condition notes: it's essentially new, with just a few hours of play in it, it seems.

It comes with: its original gigbag.