tjmangum
Senior Member
Couple of years ago I picked up a generic banjo at a sale and paid probably too much to have it set up, so that it was now a cheap banjo, but with good action. Needless to say, that experiment didn't last too long. About a month ago, I came across a CL ad from a small shop looking to sell or trade a Deering Boston banjo. I shot him a few pictures of a guitar (non Guild) that I was willing to trade and we ended up working out a deal. Immediately had a lot of fun with a decent sounding, playing banjo. A week later I'm scanning CL again, and a guy has several banjos for sale, including a Goodtime 2 (the one with the resonator) for 100 bucks. Another done deal and it comes with the hard case!
Flash forward to Monday and with my wife out of town (new grand baby coming soon) I'm checking out what, if any deals, the local Guitar Center has for it's Memorial Day "list sale". No guitar deals to be found in the acoustic room (glad to see the humidity is up to 32% versus the usual 25% - which is even more interesting because the outside air is probably 50% on that day) So I'm about to leave and figure I'll scan the "list" again, because what they have on the pages is in no particular order and doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason.
Anyway, I spot high on the wall a Deering Sierra at a good price, not a great price, not amazing - maybe 50% off retail. And on the list, under MISC. GUITARS I see another banjo listed with a bunch of letters and numbers and the following: List 4799, recent price 2700, special "list price" 719. Say what?
Now I'm thinking, what kind of boneheaded error is this and what the heck and where the heck is this banjo? So, I start scanning every banjo I can find in the room and there above the double glass doors, high on the wall, is what appears to be this item. Ok, where is one of those sales guys who are always there when you don't want them? I can't even see one within 50 feet out in the booming electric spaces. So I go and get the ladder out from behind the counter, climb up and get the banjo down. Beautiful looks, great sound. Curly maple neck, maple resonator. What is it? I know Deering, I know Gibson of course, even know something about the Recording Kings and some of the better Asian models and there were 3 Fender banjos at floor level priced in the 500-800 dollar level where I predict they may well stay for a long time. The head is marked Tennessee and the trc says Crafters:
So I call my son up, who's at home and ask him to see if he can find anything on this thing. Nope, no banjos under the heading Tennessee Crafters.
I've got my arms around this thing and I start playing the few chords and licks I know. Sounds great, but what's the story? Finally, a sales rep walks in, "Andy" and he remarks, "Hey, that's a great banjo." I ask him if he knows anything about it, to which he responds, "Yeah, Crafters of Tennessee, they're made in Nashville in a small shop. That ones been on the wall for awhile, but I got it down the other day and cleaned it up."
Needless to say the plastic came out. Andy went and found the heavy duty, TKL faux alligator case and yes, I caved in on paying for the case after some back and forth. And here it is:
So banjo,case, and oppressive sales tax out the door for about 9 bills. Which comes out to about 20% of retail, which the current retail is actually about 10% more than the store retail. And the rest of the story is that Crafters of Tennessee instruments are built by Mark Taylor, son of Tut Taylor.
Still trying to figure out what, if anything is wrong with this other than GC decided to clear out old stock. Not to mention, why would something like this end up in GC outside of some kind of distribution deal that put a couple of instruments into each store.
Anyway, that's my story. Thanks for reading.
Wonder if Guild ever entertained the idea of building banjos?
tj
Flash forward to Monday and with my wife out of town (new grand baby coming soon) I'm checking out what, if any deals, the local Guitar Center has for it's Memorial Day "list sale". No guitar deals to be found in the acoustic room (glad to see the humidity is up to 32% versus the usual 25% - which is even more interesting because the outside air is probably 50% on that day) So I'm about to leave and figure I'll scan the "list" again, because what they have on the pages is in no particular order and doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason.
Anyway, I spot high on the wall a Deering Sierra at a good price, not a great price, not amazing - maybe 50% off retail. And on the list, under MISC. GUITARS I see another banjo listed with a bunch of letters and numbers and the following: List 4799, recent price 2700, special "list price" 719. Say what?
Now I'm thinking, what kind of boneheaded error is this and what the heck and where the heck is this banjo? So, I start scanning every banjo I can find in the room and there above the double glass doors, high on the wall, is what appears to be this item. Ok, where is one of those sales guys who are always there when you don't want them? I can't even see one within 50 feet out in the booming electric spaces. So I go and get the ladder out from behind the counter, climb up and get the banjo down. Beautiful looks, great sound. Curly maple neck, maple resonator. What is it? I know Deering, I know Gibson of course, even know something about the Recording Kings and some of the better Asian models and there were 3 Fender banjos at floor level priced in the 500-800 dollar level where I predict they may well stay for a long time. The head is marked Tennessee and the trc says Crafters:
So I call my son up, who's at home and ask him to see if he can find anything on this thing. Nope, no banjos under the heading Tennessee Crafters.
I've got my arms around this thing and I start playing the few chords and licks I know. Sounds great, but what's the story? Finally, a sales rep walks in, "Andy" and he remarks, "Hey, that's a great banjo." I ask him if he knows anything about it, to which he responds, "Yeah, Crafters of Tennessee, they're made in Nashville in a small shop. That ones been on the wall for awhile, but I got it down the other day and cleaned it up."
Needless to say the plastic came out. Andy went and found the heavy duty, TKL faux alligator case and yes, I caved in on paying for the case after some back and forth. And here it is:
So banjo,case, and oppressive sales tax out the door for about 9 bills. Which comes out to about 20% of retail, which the current retail is actually about 10% more than the store retail. And the rest of the story is that Crafters of Tennessee instruments are built by Mark Taylor, son of Tut Taylor.
Still trying to figure out what, if anything is wrong with this other than GC decided to clear out old stock. Not to mention, why would something like this end up in GC outside of some kind of distribution deal that put a couple of instruments into each store.
Anyway, that's my story. Thanks for reading.
Wonder if Guild ever entertained the idea of building banjos?
tj
) but I've never heard of them before. 
