Vangoa sell most of their banjos as complete kits, and the two that sell in any volume look almost identical in a photograph. One is 38 inches long and costs around $225. The other is 26 inches and costs around $125. They are not the same instrument in two sizes, and picking the cheaper one because it is cheaper is the mistake this page exists to prevent.
What the money buys is a real Remo head, a detachable resonator and a box with everything else already in it. What it does not buy is the last hour of the build. Every Vangoa arrives with the nut slots cut high, which makes the first few frets play sharp and the action stiff, and that is fixable for less than the price of the strings you will eventually want.
Buy the full-size one, and put $50 to $100 aside for a setup
At around $225 the 38-inch Vangoa is a mahogany resonator banjo with a genuine frosted Remo head and 24 brackets, and the resonator unbolts so it plays open back for clawhammer. That is a lot of specification for the money. It is also about $50 more than two rivals with the same spec sheet, and the difference is the accessory kit — which is worth having if you would rather not assemble one, and worth nothing if you already own a tuner and a strap.
The two sizes are two different decisions
Twelve inches of overall length is not a trim. On the 26-inch banjo it comes out of the scale, which is the part that decides where the frets sit and how hard the strings pull. The result is an instrument a nine-year-old can hold comfortably and an adult cannot really learn on — the frets near the body are close enough together that ordinary fingers start covering two at once.
It also weighs 2.8 pounds against the full-size banjo’s 6.2, which is the whole argument for it. If the banjo is going in a car boot, on a bike, or into the hands of a child, that difference matters more than anything on the spec sheet. If it is going to sit on a stand in a living room while an adult learns to play, it is the wrong purchase at any price.
| 38-inch full size | 26-inch | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ~$225 | ~$125 |
| Weight | ~6 lb | 2.8 lb |
| Strings | 5, steel | 5, bronze-wound |
| Head | Remo | Remo |
| Brackets | 24 | 12 |
| Resonator | Detachable | Detachable |
| Suits | Teens and adults | Children, travel |
The bracket count is the line worth reading twice. Brackets are what hold the tension in the head, and twelve of them spread around a rim cannot pull it as evenly as twenty-four. On the small banjo that shows up as a head that goes slack faster and a tone that dulls off within a few months of ordinary playing.
What “needs a setup” actually means
A banjo leaves a budget factory with the nut slots deliberately cut shallow. Cutting them deep is a one-way operation, so the factory leaves margin and the last pass is meant to happen somewhere else. On a Vangoa it has not happened. The strings therefore sit high off the first fret, and pressing them down that far stretches them sharp — so the instrument tunes perfectly on open strings and then plays out of tune with itself for the first five frets.
This is the single most common complaint about these banjos and it is not a fault in the sense of something being broken. It is an hour of a technician’s time: nut slots taken down, bridge placed by ear against the twelfth-fret harmonic, head brought up to tension, truss rod adjusted. A shop that knows banjos charges $50 to $100 for it, and it turns a frustrating instrument into a genuinely decent one. Budget for it the way you would budget for strings.
The bridge is worth a word on its own, because it is not glued down — it is held in place by string tension alone, and it ships loose in the box. Where you stand it decides whether the banjo plays in tune above the fifth fret. If you are doing nothing else yourself, learn to set the bridge; our guide to tuning a banjo covers the harmonic method that positions it.
The Vangoa range, and which one to buy
Vangoa 5-String, 38 inch
- 5 strings
- Resonator, detachable
- 24 brackets
- Remo head
- ~$225
Mahogany neck, sides and back, a frosted Remo Weatherking head, and 24 chrome brackets holding the tension in it. The Remo is the part that matters most: it is the same head brand fitted to banjos costing five times this, and a generic plastic head is the first thing that makes a cheap banjo sound cheap. The tuners run a 14:1 gear ratio, which is enough to land on a note rather than swing past it.
The resonator comes off with an Allen key, which makes it two banjos. Bolted on it is louder and pushes the sound forward, which is what bluegrass wants. Off, it is lighter and softer against the body, which is what clawhammer and old-time want. At this price nothing else lets you defer that choice — and most beginners genuinely do not know yet which one they are going to play.
It arrives with a gig bag, clip-on tuner, strap, picks, spare strings, a pickup and the wrenches. The tuner is the part you will replace first.
- Genuine frosted Remo head, not a generic plastic one
- 24 brackets, where 16 is common at this price
- Plays as a resonator or an open back
- Nothing else to buy on day one
- Wants a setup before it plays in tune up the neck
- About $50 dearer than rivals with the same spec
- No tone ring, so it will not carry a bluegrass jam
Vangoa 5-String, 26 inch
- 5 strings
- Resonator, detachable
- 12 brackets
- 2.8 lb
- ~$125
A short-scale five-string light enough for a child to hold on a strap without complaint, and small enough to go in hand luggage. It has the same Remo head as its bigger sibling, which is more than most instruments at this size and price can say.
Buy it for the reasons above and it is good value. Buy it because it is the cheap Vangoa and it will not do what you want: the short scale puts the frets too close together for adult hands past the fifth fret, and the twelve brackets cannot hold head tension the way twenty-four can. It is a real instrument for a small player, not a budget version of a full-size banjo.
- Light enough for a child to hold properly
- Remo head at this size is unusual
- Genuinely portable
- Too cramped for adult hands
- Twelve brackets — the head loosens sooner
- Short scale changes the string tension a beginner learns on
Vangoa Left-Handed 5-String
- 5 strings
- Resonator, detachable
- 24 brackets
- Geared fifth tuner
- ~$200
Properly left-handed rather than a right-handed banjo strung backwards: the neck, the fifth-string peg and the armrest are all built the correct way round. That matters more on a banjo than on most instruments, because the fifth string is a drone that starts partway up the neck, and reversing the strings on a right-handed body puts it under the wrong thumb.
Mahogany, a Remo Weatherking head and 24 brackets, the same as the right-handed full-size banjo, plus a sealed geared fifth peg — and it costs slightly less than that banjo does. Left-handed beginner banjos are genuinely scarce below a few hundred dollars, so for a left-handed beginner this is close to the only sensible option at the price.
- A real left-handed build, not a reversed one
- Armrest fitted on the correct side
- Very little competition at this price
- Wants the same setup as the others
- Full size only — there is no small left-handed one for a child
If you already know you want to plug in, Vangoa also build the same full-size banjo with a pickup and a volume knob fitted rather than the stick-on transducer that comes in the standard kit. It is the VBJ-4E, it costs about the same as the acoustic one, and it saves you doing the job later with double-sided tape.
Where a Vangoa loses
Two banjos sit at the same specification for about $50 less. The Jameson 5-string and the Ashthorpe 5-string both give you 24 brackets, a closed back and a geared fifth tuner for around $175. Neither arrives with the pile of accessories, so if you already own a tuner and a strap the Vangoa’s advantage mostly evaporates.
The larger point is the one the weight gives away. A resonator banjo built for bluegrass volume carries a cast bronze tone ring and weighs ten to twelve pounds. No Vangoa comes near that, and the six-pound full-size one tells you there is no heavy ring under the head — which is true of everything at this price, whatever the marketing calls the hoop the head sits on. What you get instead is a light, bright, quiet instrument that is perfectly good for learning on and will be outgunned the first time you sit in a circle with a guitar and a fiddle. That is not a Vangoa failing — it is what the whole category is — but it is worth knowing before you expect otherwise. Our guide to banjos under $200 covers the same ground from the other direction.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Vangoa banjo good for a complete beginner?
Yes, with the setup. Unset up, it will teach a beginner that they cannot play in tune, which is the fastest way to put the instrument back in its bag for good. Set up, the full-size one is a perfectly reasonable first banjo and there is nothing on it that will hold back a first year of playing.
Is the Vangoa a tenor banjo?
No. Every banjo in the range covered here has five strings, including the short 26-inch one. A tenor banjo has four and is tuned differently; if that is what you are after, see plectrum versus tenor.
Can you take the resonator off?
Yes, on both sizes — it unbolts, and the Allen key is in the box. That converts the banjo from the loud, forward voice bluegrass uses to the softer one that suits clawhammer. The difference is bigger than most people expect; open back versus resonator goes through it.
What will I need to buy on top?
The setup, and eventually strings — the factory set is the cheapest part of the instrument. The bundled clip-on tuner works but is slow and imprecise, and a better one costs less than a set of strings. See banjo strings and banjo tuners.
So, is it worth it?
The 38-inch Vangoa at around $225 plus $50 to $100 for a setup lands at roughly $300 for a banjo that plays properly, comes with everything, and covers both bluegrass and clawhammer while you work out which one you want. That is fair rather than remarkable — the same money buys a better-built banjo with nothing in the box, and which way you go depends on whether you would rather have the instrument or the kit.
The 26-inch is worth it for a child or a traveller and a poor buy for anyone else. Neither is worth it if you skip the setup, which is the one thing on this page that applies to every Vangoa equally.