Deering The John Hartford

The unique Grenadillo tone ring is built from the same kind of wood that percussion marimbas are made from, it is up to 4lb lighter than a normal bronze tone-ring banjo!  The Grenadillo tone-ring is more expensive to produce than a bell bronze tone ring and will ‘tone in’ and mature in the same way as a vintage violin gaining tone and volume the more it is played.

Greg's years of experience with various woods combined with John's research into the design of vintage banjos culminated in the idea of using a Granadillo tone-ring. It has the look of a vintage instrument, not glossy ...but hand rubbed to create a smooth, fast feel.

The Pot Assembly… The rim is built from three ply rock maple, the Grenadillo  tone-ring is precisely mounted onto the turned rim.. A one piece, nickel plated zinc cast flange is fitted with 24 bracket hooks to give firm and even tension on the tension hoop. A nickel plated armrest fitted is fitted as standard. The Deering adjustable tailpiece is now standard on all Deering banjos. All metal work is heavily nickel plated to a very high standard.

A milky 11” Deering plastic head is fitted (top side coated) along with a Deering ebony tipped 15.87mm (5/8”) maple bridge. Four nickel-plated resonator thumbscrews are provided to attach the resonator. The resonator has tapered internal walls to give clear transmission of sound, it is constructed from curly maple with an attractive ‘tiger tail’ figure and stained in dark walnut. It has a convex back and is finished in a hand-rubbed vintage satin, it is fully bound in matching ivory colour binding.

The Neck Assembly… The neck is attached to the pot assembly with double lag bolts and two coordinating rim rods which give you the facility to alter the ‘action’ of banjo to suit your particular style of playing relative to the strings of your choice. The slender profile ‘fast action’ neck is constructed from solid curly maple and is fitted with a two- way internal adjustable steel truss rod, this gives precise, fine adjustment for perfect neck relief.

The solid ebony 22 fret fingerboard is fully bound to match the resonator and is inlaid with intricate ‘steamboat gothic’ pattern inlays to reflect Johns enthusiasm for steamboats. Mother of pearl single dot inlays are also positioned at the 3rd, 5th, 12th, 15th,17th, & 19th frets. The precision geared 5th string tuner is located as normal adjacent the 5th fret. The nickel silver fretwork is perfectly positioned and glued in position to give ease of maintenance should re-fretting ever become necessary, they are rounded and polished for a smooth playing action.  The nut is precisely cut and set for a comfortable string action at the first position.

The classic 1920’s peg head (headstock) shape is masterfully inlaid with mother of  pearl to compliment the steamboat gothic fingerboard inlays. A white edged black plastic ‘bell’ shape truss rod cover is fitted. A set of high quality ‘Deering’ planetary-geared tuners are fitted to give positive and trouble free tuning. The tuners are nickel plated to match the hardware of the pot assembly. The dark walnut stained maple neck has a hand rubbed vintage satin finished to match the resonator.

Each banjo we supply is individually set up in our on-site Banjo Specialist Workshop here at Eagle Music. Any Banjo purchased from Eagle will be fully SET UP, checked for intonation and playability and tuned ready for playing straight out of the box!