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Banjo

Deering Goodtime

Name: Deering Goodtime
Brand: Deering

Deering · Goodtime 5-String Banjo

Price: 518 EUR – 1.445 EUR

Price history

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Availability: 6/10 (Common)

America's best-known entry-level banjo: an open-back design with a 3-ply violin-grade maple rim and slim rock maple neck, built domestically at a price competing directly with Asian-import banjos.

Where available? Go to the best price – 559 EUR About this instrument

About the Deering Goodtime

The Goodtime's defining feature is what it doesn't have: no resonator, keeping weight down to roughly 4.5 lbs and cost well below Deering's resonator-equipped models, while still using the same violin-grade 3-ply maple rim construction found across the company's higher-end instruments rather than a cheaper laminate substitute. The neck is slim rock maple in a comfortable profile, with a maple fingerboard (rather than rosewood or ebony) across 22 frets at a 26 1/4-inch scale.

Hardware includes a beveled steel tension hoop, 16 flat J-hooks, a 5/8-inch Goodtime smile bridge, and Deering's own patented Goodtime tailpiece, finished in hand-rubbed polyurethane with carnauba wax. As an open-back instrument it suits old-time and clawhammer styles best, though many beginners of all styles choose it purely for its combination of genuine US manufacturing and accessible price.

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Source: https://reverb.com/item/4826819-new-deering-goodtime-two-left-handed-5-string-bluegrass-resonator-banjo-natural-made-in-usa

Sound character of the Deering Goodtime

The original Goodtime is fully open-back with a plain 3-ply maple rim and no metal tone ring, making it Deering's lightest (4.5 lbs) and mellowest model. Without a resonator to project sound forward or a ring to add metallic sustain, it produces a soft, warm, intimate tone favored by clawhammer and old-time players over loud bluegrass projection.

Mellow Warm Delicate

Technical data for the Deering Goodtime

Rim	11", 3-ply violin-grade maple
Neck	Slim rock maple
Fretboard	Maple
Frets	22
Scale length	26 1/4"
Weight	~4.5 lbs
Type	Open-back

Price history for the Deering Goodtime

Cheapest seen: 518 EUR · Most expensive seen: 1.445 EUR

Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

The history of the Deering Goodtime

Deering introduced the Goodtime specifically to prove that a genuinely well-built, American-made banjo could compete on price with Asian-import beginner instruments, and it has remained one of the most consistently recommended entry banjos in bluegrass and old-time teaching circles for decades.