Where these two ranges meet, they cost the same money. A Deering Goodtime Two is around $850. A Gold Tone CC-100R+ is around $850. So the choice is not about what you spend — it is about what that money is spent on, and the two brands spend it in almost opposite directions.
Deering Goodtime Two
Built in California, set up by the people who made it, and worth a large share of what you paid if you ever sell it. The Gold Tone beside it carries more hardware for the same money, and that is a real argument — but resale is the one that protects you if the banjo turns out not to stick.
The two brands, side by side
| Deering | Gold Tone | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1975, by Greg and Janet Deering | 1993, by Wayne and Robyn Rogers |
| Based | Spring Valley, California | Titusville, Florida |
| Where built | California, start to finish | Asia, to Gold Tone’s spec |
| Range starts at | ~$600 (Goodtime) | ~$315 (AC-1) |
| Tone ring | None below the Goodtime Special, around $1,000 | Rolled brass hoop from Cripple Creek up |
| Hooks / brackets | 16 | 24 on the Cripple Creek Plus models |
| Bag or case included | No | Gig bag on most models |
| Warranty, first owner | 8 years on Goodtime; no time limit above it | 7 years on Cripple Creek; lifetime on Mastertone |
| Warranty, second owner | None — it ends when you sell | 1 year on Cripple Creek, 5 on Mastertone and AC |
| Resale | Holds a large share of its price | Falls away like most imports |
The same money buys two different things
Put a Goodtime Two and a CC-100R+ on the same bench and the Gold Tone looks like the better deal by a distance. It has a rolled brass tone hoop where the Deering has bare wood, twenty-four hooks against sixteen, planetary tuners rather than geared ones, an engraved armrest, a resonator that unbolts so the same banjo covers bluegrass and old-time, and a gig bag in the box. The Deering has none of that. It does not even come with a bag.
What the Deering has instead is where it was made and what happens to it afterward. It is built in California by the largest banjo maker in America, on the same tooling as their instruments costing five times as much, and it is set up by that same shop before it ships. Sell it in five years and you will get a large fraction of your money back, which is not true of any imported banjo at this price.
So the split is clean. If you are confident the banjo is going to stick, buy the specification — the Gold Tone is more instrument for the money and it is not close. If there is a real chance you will change your mind, the Deering’s resale is worth more than the tone hoop, because it is the difference between losing a little and losing most of it.
A brass hoop is not a tone ring
Gold Tone’s hardware advantage is real but it is worth knowing exactly what it is. The brass in a Cripple Creek is a rolled hoop — a bent bar of brass sitting under the head. It is brighter and louder than the bare wooden rim a Goodtime uses, for very little weight or money. It is not the cast bell-brass Mastertone-style ring that bluegrass banjos are built around, and it does not sound like one.
Neither brand puts a cast ring anywhere near $850. Gold Tone gets there first, at the OB-150; Deering’s Goodtime line never does, and their cast-ring instruments start well above $2,000. If a loud bluegrass pot is the destination, that gap matters more than anything else on this page. Open back versus resonator covers the related choice.
Both brands set their banjos up. Neither can set up a warehouse.
Deering sets up every banjo in Spring Valley before it leaves, and Gold Tone gives every instrument a twelve-point setup in Titusville before shipment. That is a point in favor of both and it is why either brand plays properly out of the box in a way a generic import does not.
It survives shipping imperfectly, though, and the banjo is unusually exposed here because the bridge is not attached to anything. It is a loose piece of wood held down by string pressure alone, and it moves. If your new banjo plays in tune open and sharp everywhere else, that is the bridge, not the brand — check the harmonic at the twelfth fret against the fretted note and slide it until they match. Our tuning guide walks through it.
The warranties do not work the way the price suggests
Deering’s coverage is longer and it is completely non-transferable — it ends the moment the instrument changes hands, on every model they make. Gold Tone’s is shorter at the top and partly survives a sale. Both are void if you did not buy from an authorized dealer, and Deering additionally requires you to register the instrument.
| Line | First owner | Second owner |
|---|---|---|
| Deering Goodtime | 8 years (6 if built before 2025) | None |
| Deering, Vega, Tenbrooks | No time limit | None |
| Gold Tone Mastertone | Lifetime | 5 years |
| Gold Tone Cripple Creek | 7 years | 1 year |
| Gold Tone AC series | 5 years | 5 years |
That condition is the one to take seriously, because on an instrument costing the better part of a thousand dollars it is the difference between a warranty measured in years and no warranty at all. Both brands publish their dealer lists, so buy from an authorized dealer and keep the receipt — it costs a minute and it is the cheapest insurance on the whole purchase.
Where the brands do not compete at all
Below about $600 there is no comparison to make, because Deering does not build anything that cheap. The Goodtime is the floor of their range and it is also the cheapest American-made banjo on the market. Everything under it is Gold Tone’s, and the AC-1 is the one worth having.
Gold Tone also builds a far stranger catalogue. Twelve-inch pots, A-scale necks, long necks, fretless fingerboards, Irish tenors, banjitars, banjolas, cello banjos, resonator guitars. Deering covers the ordinary variants — tenor, plectrum, six-string, a fretless Goodtime — but if the instrument you want is unusual, Gold Tone is often the only company making it at a sane price. Our guide to banjo types is the place to start if you are not sure which one you are after.
Which one to buy
Deering Goodtime Two
- Resonator
- No tone ring
- About 6 lb
- Made in California
- ~$850
A rock maple neck, a three-ply violin-grade maple rim, a geared fifth-string tuner and a resonator bolted to the back — and nothing on it that exists to look expensive. It arrives playing in tune with itself, which is the practical argument for buying American at this price.
Be honest about what it is not. There is no tone ring, sixteen hooks rather than twenty-four, and no bag or case in the box. In a room with a guitar and a fiddle going it will get buried. What it has is eight years of warranty, a shop in California that will service it, and a resale value nothing else here matches.
- American built and set up before shipping
- Holds its value better than anything at this price
- Eight-year warranty, and a shop that services it
- No tone ring, 16 hooks, no bag
- Less instrument on paper than the Gold Tone beside it
- Warranty ends the day you sell it
Gold Tone CC-100R+
- Removable resonator
- Rolled brass tone hoop
- 24 hooks, planetary tuners
- Gig bag included
- ~$850
The same money as the Goodtime Two and visibly more instrument. The brass hoop gives it brightness and volume the Deering’s bare rim cannot produce, the planetary tuners are a genuine upgrade over geared ones, and the resonator unbolts — so one banjo covers bluegrass and old-time while you work out which one you are.
Against that, it is built in Asia and it will not hold its price. The plus over the base CC-100R is a factory-fitted pickup, which is what Gold Tone names the model for; if you have no intention of plugging in, the standard model does the same job for about fifty dollars less.
- Brass tone hoop where the Deering has none
- Resonator comes off, so it plays both styles
- Planetary tuners, 24 hooks and a bag included
- Resale is poor next to the Deering
- Seven-year warranty, not eight
- Gloss vintage-brown finish is not to every taste
Gold Tone AC-1
- Open back
- Composite rim
- 3.75 lb
- Gig bag included
- ~$315
Deering builds nothing at this price, so this is a comparison with one entrant. The composite rim keeps it very light — a banjo you can hold all evening — and gives it the dry, woody voice clawhammer wants rather than the metallic ring of a bluegrass setup.
It is the one Gold Tone whose warranty fully transfers, five years either way, which is a small oddity in the buyer’s favor. The composite rim divides opinion on looks and it will never be loud enough for a jam, but as a first old-time banjo from an established maker it is hard to argue with.
- An established builder’s instrument at entry money
- Very light and comfortable
- Warranty transfers in full
- Composite rim is not to every taste
- Too quiet for bluegrass volume
Deering Goodtime Openback
- Open back, 11″ rim
- No tone ring
- 4.5 lb
- ~$600
The Goodtime Two without the resonator, for $250 less. Same neck, same rim, same factory, same warranty. If you already know you want an open back, there is no reason to pay for the bowl.
The ceiling is permanent — no amount of setup will make a ringless open back carry over a bluegrass band — but that is not what it is for. As the least money that buys an American banjo with a shop behind it, it is the value benchmark of both brands’ ranges.
- The cheapest American-made banjo there is
- Light, and set up before it ships
- Strong resale for the money
- No bluegrass future beyond playing at home
- No bag or case included
Deering Goodtime Americana
- Open back, 12″ rim
- Renaissance head
- About 4.5 lb
- ~$750
The twelve-inch rim drops the pitch of the pot and gives the deep, plunky voice fiddle tunes sit on, and the Renaissance head takes the edge off the attack. Four and a half pounds is genuinely unusual and it changes how long you can play.
Note that this version has a standard fingerboard rather than a scooped one. If the scoop is what you came for — and for clawhammer played up over the head, it is worth having — the Gold Tone below has it for a hundred dollars more.
- A genuine old-time voice, not a compromise
- Nothing here with a wooden pot is lighter
- American built, with the same warranty and resale
- No scoop at this price
- Quiet by design — not a band instrument
Gold Tone CC-Carlin12
- Open back, 12″ pot
- Scooped fingerboard
- 13⁄8” nut
- Gig bag included
- ~$850
Bob Carlin’s signature specification in Gold Tone’s cheaper Cripple Creek trim, and the most purpose-built clawhammer banjo either brand sells at this money. The scooped fingerboard gives you somewhere to strike over the head, the wide nut suits the thumb work, and the twelve-inch pot supplies the depth.
Deering has no answer to this below the Artisan line. What you give up is the American build and the resale — and the twelve-inch scooped pot commits you, because it is the wrong banjo the day you decide you want to play bluegrass after all.
- Scoop, wide nut and 12″ pot at one price
- Nothing comparable from Deering near this money
- Set up by Gold Tone before shipping
- A specialist — no use for bluegrass
- Resale well behind the Deerings
Gold Tone OB-150
- Resonator, one-piece flange
- Cast bell-brass tone ring
- Hard case included
- ~$1,300
The point at which the argument stops being about value and starts being about volume. A cast bell-brass ring and a one-piece flange are what a bluegrass banjo is actually built around, and this is the cheapest credible way to own both.
It is a heavy instrument and it is the wrong banjo for anyone playing old-time. But if being heard next to a guitar, a fiddle and a mandolin is the whole point, nothing in the Goodtime line will ever do it, and Deering’s own cast-ring banjos cost more than twice this. A case is included, which the Deerings never are.
- Cast ring and one-piece flange at the lowest price either brand offers
- Hard case in the box
- Lifetime warranty, five years to a second owner
- Heavy, and pointless for old-time
- Still an import at a serious price
What to add
| What | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Carrion hardshell case | No Deering ships with one and the pot is the part that gets damaged. This one is cut for resonator banjos, so it fits a Goodtime Two or a CC-100R+ — not the open backs. |
| Clip-on banjo tuner | Five strings, and the short fifth is the one that drifts. More options in our banjo tuner picks. |
Frequently asked questions
Is Deering better than Gold Tone?
Deering is better built and better supported; Gold Tone gives you more instrument for the money. At the prices where both compete the Deering is the safer purchase because of resale and service, and the Gold Tone is the better specification. Below $600 only Gold Tone exists, and above about $1,200 only Gold Tone offers a cast tone ring.
Are Deering banjos made in the USA?
Yes, all of them, in Spring Valley, California — including the entry-level Goodtime line, which is why it is the cheapest American-made banjo you can buy. More context in our American-made banjo guide.
Where are Gold Tone banjos made?
They are designed in Titusville, Florida and built in Asia to Gold Tone’s specification, then given a twelve-point setup in Florida before shipping. That last part is the reason they play better out of the box than a generic import at the same price.
Which brand is better for a beginner?
It depends entirely on the budget. Under $600 the question answers itself — Gold Tone, and the AC-1 for old-time. At $600 and up, a Goodtime is the more forgiving purchase for someone who is not yet sure they will stick with it, because you can sell it without losing much. Our beginner banjo picks include cheaper options from other makers.
Does the warranty survive if I buy secondhand?
Not with Deering — their coverage ends when the instrument changes hands, on every line. Gold Tone gives a second owner one year on a Cripple Creek and five on a Mastertone or an AC model. Both brands void coverage entirely if the original purchase was not from an authorized dealer.
Do either of them sound good enough for bluegrass?
For playing at home or with one other person, yes, either. For a jam, you need a cast tone ring and a flange, and neither brand puts those in a banjo under about $1,200. That is the Gold Tone OB-150’s argument, and it is a strong one. See our bluegrass banjo picks for the wider field.
Why do Deering banjos cost so much with so little hardware on them?
Because the money is going into American labor and materials rather than into brackets and plating. It is a defensible trade and it is also a real cost — you are buying a lighter, plainer banjo than an import at the same price. Why banjos are expensive goes into where the money actually goes.
So which one?
If you are choosing at the price the two brands share, take the Goodtime Two when you might not stick with it and the CC-100R+ when you know you will. Below that, only Gold Tone is playing, and the AC-1 is the one to have. For old-time specifically, the Goodtime Americana and the scooped CC-Carlin12 are the two worth arguing over. And if a bluegrass jam is where this is heading, save for the OB-150 rather than buying twice. Our intermediate banjo guide and picks around $1,000 put both brands beside their competitors.