FB-54 Banjo Review

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Transcript of Featured Review

Hi everyone my name is Mike and today I'd like to show you the Fender FB-54 Banjo. It's a Bluegrass banjo that's about the middle of the line for Fender and it runs for $320 brand new at most music stores. Like I said it's a Bluegrass banjo, so it has a resonator on it. It's made of laminated mahogany, so is the neck, it's made of laminated mahogany. The front of the neck the fingerboard is made of rosewood and the, the bridge here is made of rosewood. The leather strap you see is does not come with the banjo that's part of the banjo strap I bought after I bought the banjo. The rim you see, the metal part, is chrome-plated aluminum. Aluminum is not the best metal for a rim on a banjo but being more of a beginner banjo than more of the top end banjos, aluminum is basically all you're going to get. It has 5 tuners, one for each string so the fifth string tuner is about halfway up and the other four tuners are on the headstock. They are all geared, they all turn smoothly and they all keep, they all keep tuning very well. A lot of banjos will slip out of tune while you're playing them, this one doesn't really have that problem. The head is a Remo Weather-King and that's pretty standard for a head on a banjo. Later down the road you can upgrade to any head you want; that's one of the nice features of this banjo. Even though it's a beginner's banjo, the head can be upgraded to change the sound as you progress and another sort of disadvantage of this banjo, but sort of an advantage as well, is it doesn't come with a tone ring. A tone ring is a metal ring that enhances the sound of the banjo. A lot of the higher end banjos come with one of those but the lower end banjos don't. So, as you progress you can go ahead and buy a tone ring also and stick it in here. It is like upgrading your banjo instead of having to go out and buy another one. I played quite a few banjos at the store when I was trying to figure out which one to buy and for the beginner cheaper models around $320 I really liked the sound of this one the best. The other ones kind of sounded weak or they sounded too metaly. This one had a nice balance of the banjo twangy sound and also a nice warmness to it. I'll play a few notes here for you. -- It sounds pretty good to me. I really like it, it's a great beginner banjo I've learned quite a bit on it. I haven't had a need to go buy another banjo. I don't see a need to buy another banjo anywhere in the near future. Possibly an upgrade like a new head and a tone ring but other than that this is a great banjo. I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in learning the banjo. It's the Fender FB-54. It goes for about $320 from your local music store.