2016 C.W. Dean (Jenes Cottrell Copy) 5-String Openback Banjo

Overview: My buddy Forrest picked this banjo up in 2016 and I had the pleasure of giving it a glorified setup to get it playing right back in 2017. He's downsizing his collection, lately, and this is one he's sad to let go but he just has, you know, a few too many banjos! It arrived back here exactly as it left and playing just the same after no adjustments for the last 9 years. How about that? I'm now going to borrow and edit some text from my original post on this to describe this thing...

My friend, Forrest, was super-excited to get this banjo from maker C.W. Dean. Mr. Dean makes these as reproductions-of-sorts of the somewhat famous Jenes Cottrell banjos.

The most interesting part of this banjo is that its rim is made from an aluminum 1956 Buick transmission torque converter ring. This puts the rim size at a little under 12" but the coolest bit is that the original shape of the ring yields an archtop-tonering banjo rim in one piece.

The sound is loud, folksy, a bit nasal, and sounds every bit as good as the cool cast-aluminum archtop rims you might find on '70s Japanese Iidas (which are some of my favorite mid-range banjos, by the way).

Apparently the headstock shape is a riff on an original Cottrell design. The board is ebony and nicely fretted. We had to move the 5th-string "railroad spike" capos to the middle of the frets to get them to catch better, though. You can see the nice walnut/bloodwood/walnut neck in the back shots. Amazingly, the builder didn't glue-in the dowel in the rim! It's part of the same wood that the neck is cut from.

So, my conclusion? These are very cool, folksy banjos with a lot of volume and a warm, poppy presence. They're ideal for frailing but have the focus and cut needed for a two- or three-finger picker as well.

Repairs included: Last time I saw it I gave it a glorified setup, new bridge, and some adjustments. It's still playing spot-on just as when I last saw it. It's ready to serve!

• Weight: 6 lbs 12 oz
• Scale length: 25 5/8"
• Nut width: 1 3/8"
• Neck shape: deeper V
• Board radius: flat
• Depth at first fret: 0.95"
• Depth at seventh fret: 1.12"
• Head diameter: 11 3/4"
• Depth overall at rim: 3 1/4"
• Rim wood: aluminum
• Tonering: integral archtop
• Bridge: ebony/maple compensated
• Fretboard: ebony
• Neck wood: walnut/bloodwood
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 10s
• Truss rod: non-adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium

Condition notes: It has a little bit of usewear here and there and the build quality is mildly-folksy here and there as well, but overall it's an almost as-new piece of folk-art-banjo. It plays the biz, to boot.

It comes with: It has a quite good hard case.

Consignor tag: FNTN