The banjo you learned on has started to annoy you, and the obvious move is to spend three or four times what it cost. Whether that is a good idea depends entirely on where you are heading. For old-time and clawhammer, this price bracket is not a stepping stone at all — it is the end of the road, and players gig on these instruments for thirty years. For bluegrass it is the awkward middle, because the one part that makes a bluegrass banjo sound like one does not appear until roughly a thousand dollars, and everything below that is hardware arranged around its absence.
Deering Goodtime Openback
Built in California, set up before it ships, and backed for eight years. It is the point where the instrument stops fighting you — the tuners hold, the action is right, the neck is straight — and for a great many players it is simply the last banjo they buy.
The six at a glance
| Banjo | Back | Tone ring | Built | Price band | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deering Goodtime Openback | Open back, 11″ | None | California | ~$600 | The step up that ends the question |
| Deering Goodtime Americana | Open back, 12″ | None | California | ~$750 | Old-time and clawhammer |
| Deering Goodtime Two | Resonator | None | California | ~$850 | American built, with a resonator |
| Ibanez B300 | Resonator, flange | Rolled | Import | ~$600 | Bluegrass layout for the money |
| Washburn Americana B10 | Resonator | None | Import | ~$500 | The smallest worthwhile jump |
| Washburn Americana B9 | Resonator | None | Import | ~$380 | Planetary tuners on a budget |
What stepping up actually buys
A setup, more than a spec sheet
The largest single difference between a $200 banjo and a $600 one is not the wood. It is that somebody adjusted the second one. Head tension set to pitch, bridge placed where the intonation is actually right, action low enough that barre chords do not hurt, truss rod set, fifth-string nut cut properly. On a cheap banjo none of that is guaranteed and all of it drifts.
Deering does this in San Diego before the instrument leaves the building, and the specialist shops that sell the imports do it too. Buy the same import from a warehouse and you get the box the factory sealed. That is the real reason a step-up banjo feels transformed on day one, and it is worth knowing because it points at a cheaper option covered further down.
The tone ring is where the money stops adding up
A tone ring is a metal hoop sitting on top of the wooden rim with the head stretched over it. It is what turns a thud into a ring, and it is the most expensive part of a banjo to make. There are three answers, and only one of them is the bluegrass sound.
No ring — the head bears on bare wood. Dry, woody, quick to decay, and exactly what old-time players want. Every Deering Goodtime works this way. A rolled hoop, a bent bar of metal, which is what the Ibanez B300 and most imports at this price use: brighter and louder than bare wood for very little money or weight. A cast bell-brass ring, three pounds of poured metal, which is the sound on every bluegrass record you have heard.
Nothing on this page has the third one. The cheapest cast ring worth owning is the Gold Tone OB-150 at $1,299.99 — sand-cast bell brass, a one-piece die-cast flange — and the instruments most professionals settle on — a Deering Sierra, a Gold Tone OB-250 — run from $2,000 to $2,500. So if bluegrass volume in a jam is the destination, spending $850 here buys you a nicer banjo without buying you that. Either take one of these knowing where its ceiling is, or leave the money alone and save. Our picks around $1,000 cover the next rung up.
Old-time has no such ceiling
Turn the question round and it comes out differently. An open-back banjo has no tone ring by design, no resonator, no flange and not much hardware, so the things that cost money on a bluegrass banjo are things an old-time player is actively trying to avoid. A good rim, a straight neck, a decent head and a proper setup is the entire specification, and $600 to $800 buys all of it.
That is why the Goodtime Americana at around $750 is not an intermediate instrument in any meaningful sense. It is a finished one. The 12-inch rim drops the pitch of the pot and gives the deep plunky voice fiddle tunes sit on, the Renaissance head takes the edge off the attack, and four and a half pounds means you can play it all evening. There is more on the wider choice in open back vs resonator and in our clawhammer picks.
Gold Tone makes the obvious banjos here
The Cripple Creek line is the natural answer at this price. Gold Tone holds their prices, so the CC-Carlin12 and the CC-100R+ both sit around $850 and stay there — there is no discount to hunt for, and what differs between one of these banjos and another is who set it up and who answers the phone afterward, not the number on the tag.
The CC-Carlin12 is the best clawhammer specification anywhere near this money: a scooped fingerboard, a 12-inch pot and a wide nut, with a gig bag included. One thing worth knowing before you commit — Gold Tone void the warranty on anything not bought from an authorized dealer, so buy from one and keep the receipt.
The six picks
Deering Goodtime Openback
- Open back, 11″ three-ply violin-grade maple rim
- No tone ring
- Rock maple neck, geared fifth-string tuner
- 4.5 lb
- Made in California, eight-year warranty
- ~$600
There is nothing on this banjo that exists to look expensive. A rock maple neck, a violin-grade maple rim, a geared fifth-string tuner, and a factory in San Diego that plays each one before it ships. What you notice first is not the tone — it is that the thing simply works, holds its tuning, and stays where you set it.
It will not get louder over time and it has no bluegrass future beyond playing at home or with one other person. That ceiling is permanent and no amount of setup moves it. Against that, a Goodtime holds a large fraction of its price on the used market, which is the closest thing to a free trial available at this level. Our full Goodtime review goes further.
- American built and set up before shipping
- Same price on Amazon as at the banjo shops
- Holds value better than anything else here
- Eight-year warranty
- No tone ring, so no bluegrass projection
- Plain appointments and no case in the box
Deering Goodtime Americana
- Open back, 12″ rim
- No tone ring
- 12″ Renaissance head
- 4.5 lb
- Made in California
- ~$750
The 12-inch pot is the whole point. A wider rim lowers the pitch of the drum itself, and with the translucent Renaissance head over it the attack softens into something round and low that sits under a fiddle instead of arguing with it. Four and a half pounds is unusually light, and it changes how long a session lasts before your shoulder decides otherwise.
The version sold here has a standard fingerboard rather than a scooped one, so if you want to strike the string over the end of the neck you will be catching fretwire. That is the one specification a dedicated clawhammer player would want and this does not have it. Everything else about the instrument is aimed squarely at the style.
- 12″ rim and Renaissance head give a genuine old-time voice
- 4.5 lb — nothing here is lighter
- American built, eight-year warranty
- The going rate for the specification, with no discount to hunt for
- No scooped fingerboard
- Quiet next to any resonator banjo
Deering Goodtime Two
- Resonator
- No tone ring
- Three-ply violin-grade maple rim, 11″
- 6 lb
- Made in California
- ~$850
A Goodtime with a three-ply maple bowl bolted to the back, which throws the sound forward and adds about a pound. Everything good about the openback is still here — the setup, the warranty, the resale — and the resonator makes it a more conventional-looking instrument that suits bluegrass technique perfectly well.
Be clear about what the extra $250 buys, though. It is projection and appearance, not a tone ring. In a room with a guitar, a fiddle and a mandolin all going at once this still gets buried, and the Ibanez below has more bluegrass hardware on it for $250 less. What the Deering has instead is where it was built and what it will be worth in ten years.
- American built with the same setup and warranty
- Six pounds — light for a resonator banjo
- Best resale value on the page
- Still no tone ring at $850
- Sixteen hooks, no flange, no case
Ibanez B300
- Resonator with two-piece flange
- Rolled tone ring
- 24 brackets, 11″ Remo coated head
- Basswood block rim, walnut resonator with abalone purfling
- Okoume neck, purpleheart board, 22 frets, acrylic inlay
- Plastic nut
- ~$600
On paper this is the most bluegrass instrument here and it costs less than the Deering openback. A rolled ring, a two-piece flange, twenty-four brackets and an armrest — the full traditional layout, at a price where the American banjos have none of it. The acrylic vine inlay and the gloss walnut resonator make it look like an instrument costing twice as much.
The friction tuners are the honest complaint. Ibanez fits chrome friction pegs rather than geared or planetary machines, and friction pegs slip; expect to retune more than you would like, and budget for planetary replacements if it irritates you. The basswood block rim is also a step below a three-ply maple one, and an import at this price will not hold its money. Our B300 review covers it in depth.
- Brass ring, flange and 24 brackets for around $600
- Genuinely handsome for the money
- The going rate, with no discount to hunt for
- Friction tuners slip
- Basswood block rim, not three-ply maple
- Little resale value
Washburn Americana B10
- Resonator
- No tone ring
- Mahogany neck and resonator, gloss sunburst
- 22-fret engineered-wood board, die-cast tuners
- Remo head, Kershner-style tailpiece
- ~$500
If the banjo you have cost $180 and you want a real one without spending like it, this is the sensible amount of money. Mahogany rather than laminate, a Remo head rather than whatever the factory had, die-cast tuners that hold, and a Kershner-style tailpiece you can actually adjust to change the tone. Washburn lists it at $499 themselves, so the asking price is the going rate for the instrument rather than a premium.
There is no tone ring and there is no flange, so it is a resonator banjo in shape rather than in voice, and the gloss sunburst is doing some work that the specification does not back up. Washburn specifies the fingerboard as engineered wood rather than rosewood, and have done since at least 2019, even though their own product description still says rosewood; they list one B10 and that is its board. Taken as the cheapest step that is genuinely a step, though, it is the right pick — and it leaves enough over for the setup that will do more than the next $200 of instrument. See our B10 review.
- Mahogany, Remo head and die-cast tuners at ~$500
- Adjustable tailpiece — a real tone control
- Sold at Washburn’s own list price
- No tone ring and no flange
- Looks more expensive than it sounds
Washburn Americana B9
- Resonator
- Cast aluminum rim
- Mahogany resonator
- Planetary tuners
- Engineered-wood fingerboard
- ~$380
Planetary tuners at this price are unusual and they matter more than most of what else is on the sheet. They are geared, so they move in small predictable amounts and stay put, which is the difference between tuning once at the start of an evening and tuning between every tune. Set against the Ibanez above, this is the cheaper banjo that will annoy you less.
The rim is cast aluminum rather than wood, which is the reason it costs $380. Aluminum is bright and a bit metallic and it will never be mistaken for a maple pot, but it is consistent and it does not move with the weather. Washburn specifies an engineered-wood fingerboard here too, as they do across the whole line below the B16.
- Planetary tuners for under $400
- Aluminum rim is stable and consistent
- Below Washburn’s own list price
- Aluminum pot sounds brighter and thinner than wood
- Engineered-wood board on the version at this price
Also worth a look
| Banjo | Price band | Why you might pick it |
|---|---|---|
| Oscar Schmidt OB3 | ~$350 | A plain open-back with a wooden rim, cheaper than anything else here that is not a toy. The right choice if old-time is the plan and $600 is not available yet. It comes with either a rosewood or an ovankol fretboard at the same price, so pick the wood you want rather than taking whichever comes up first. More options in our open-back picks. |
| Gold Tone CC-Carlin12 | ~$850 | Scooped fingerboard, 12″ pot, wide nut and a gig bag — the best clawhammer specification at this money, and the same price wherever you buy it. |
| Gold Tone OB-150 | ~$1,300 | Where a cast bell-brass tone ring actually starts. If bluegrass volume is the whole reason you are upgrading, this is the one to save for. |
Try fixing the banjo you have first
If what is bothering you is that the strings buzz, the tuning slips, the action is high or the tone is dull, none of that is a reason to buy a different banjo. A fresh head runs $30 to $40, a decent bridge $10 to $30, and a proper setup at a shop that knows banjos costs less than a hundred. Together that is a fifth of what a Goodtime costs and it fixes every complaint on that list.
Tightening the head alone changes the instrument more than most people expect, and it is free. New strings and a chromatic clip-on tuner are the other two cheap wins — our picks are in banjo strings and banjo tuners. Do all of that, play it for a month, and then decide whether you still want to spend $600. Quite often the answer changes.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as an intermediate banjo?
Roughly $400 to $900, above the starter instruments and below the tone-ring banjos. It is a description of price rather than of anything you can point at on the instrument, which is why the answer depends so much on style: the same $700 buys a finished old-time banjo or an unfinished bluegrass one. Our guide to what banjos cost maps the whole range.
Should I skip this tier and save for a better banjo?
For bluegrass, seriously consider it. A $2,000 banjo with a cast ring is a different instrument, not a nicer version of the same one, and the players who tell you to save are usually the ones who bought twice. For old-time the advice does not apply at all — the money above $800 goes on rims, woods and appointments rather than on anything that changes how the banjo works.
Is an American-made banjo worth the extra?
At this price it mostly buys two things: an instrument that arrives correctly set up, and one you can sell. A Deering Goodtime returns a large share of its price used, where an import at the same money returns very little. If there is a real chance you will change your mind about the banjo, that gap is worth more than any specification. See American-made banjos and why banjos cost what they do.
Open back or resonator?
Old-time, clawhammer and playing at home: open back. Bluegrass, three-finger picking and jams: resonator. If you genuinely do not know yet, an open back is the safer purchase — it is lighter, cheaper, and a resonator banjo played quietly at home is mostly just heavier. There is a fuller answer in open back vs resonator.
How much heavier is a resonator banjo?
About a pound for the resonator itself, and considerably more once a tone ring and a flange are involved. The Goodtime Americana is 4.5 lb and a full bluegrass banjo runs past eleven. If you play standing, that is not a detail — we put numbers to the range in how much a banjo weighs.
So which one?
For most people the Deering Goodtime Openback is the one to buy — American made, properly set up, and worth real money in five years if you change direction. If old-time is settled, the Goodtime Americana is the finished version of that instrument and you will not need to upgrade again.
Heading for bluegrass on a fixed budget, the Ibanez B300 puts the whole traditional layout in front of you for around $600, and the Washburn B10 does the honest minimum for $500. But if a jam is where this is going, the money is better saved than spent here — see our picks around $1,000 and the bluegrass guide. Still early on? Start here instead.