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Designed for and played by the late entertainer John Hartford, this professional-grade banjo offers a tone-ring sound without the extra weight. Made in USA.
The John Hartford model has two very special advantages: it is lighter weight than most other bluegrass banjos, and it has a truly unique tone. It sounds like a vintage pre-war banjo. But the unusual thing is that as it ages, it "plays-in" like a violin and gains in volume and presence the more it is played. It competes well against even the best bronze tone-ring banjos in jam sessions.
The Hartford is made of flamed maple and stained to a warm brown. It has the look of a vintage instrument, not glossy, but hand rubbed to create a smooth, fast feel. The "steamboat gothic" inlay pattern reflects John's enthusiasm for steamboats.
Greg Deering'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" made from a wood used on marimbas. This unique tone-ring is mounted on a three-ply maple rim with a zinc flange to create a wood-rim, lighter weight (8 lbs instead of 11 or 12) banjo a very good choice for bluegrass as well as other styles!
With the custom option of a pop-on resonator, and assembling the banjo with a light weight tube for open-back playing, you can have a banjo which is easily convertible from open-back to bluegrass style, weighing 6 lbs with the resonator and only 5 lbs without the same as a guitar!
More expensive to produce than a bell bronze tone-ring, the Hartford tone-ring is standard on the John Hartford model and can be ordered as a custom option on other models from the Sierra on up the line.
Deering hard-shell case included.
Note: Our banjos are individually inspected, set up and tuned by the banjo.com staff in Georgia. We are banjo players, so we set them up the way we want to play them! Each banjo is in tune when we carefully pack it for shipment. Climate conditions and travel will affect the tuning, so it may need to be fine-tuned before playing. |
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