®
Fingerstyle Productions





 

Bluegrass Alltime Jam Favourites
  If you’re going to buy a second-hand banjo…

Generally people are honest and ebay is a terrific community when folk abide by the rules.  A good indication of reliability is the sellers feedback status – the number posted after their ebay handle.  The higher the number, the more experienced the trader and it’s in a regular trader’s interest to keep their customers happy – dissatisfied buyers are quick to post negative comments and these are available for everyone to see.

The buyer is obliged to pay for the goods first – fair enough too, but once the goods arrive the buyer can really only refuse goods that are damaged or that don’t match the description – and this is where the trouble can begin – not in telling outright porkies but in the sin of ommission.  To give the benefit of the doubt, sellers can be auctioning goods they’ve bought cheaply, been given, or found in the attic and they’re just trying to make a buck.  Some descriptions would be worth posting on a joke sheet and have obviously been written in total ignorance of components and features a buyer looks for.  Like these, for instance…

            “5 string banjo.  Made by Remo.  Excellent condition.  One string missing.”

            “This banjo belonged to my grandad.  He brought it over from US after the war so it must be pretty old.  It has four tuning pegs at one end and another half way up the neck.  The wood is not very scratched and it has been stored in its case.”

Then there are the more intentionally misleading comments that just skirt the rule about correct descriptions, such as…

            “… has a signature inside that might be Gib… something – can’t quite make it out.”

And of course the very thing you’re trying to determine isn’t featured in the photograph.  Photos can be low resolution or taken in such bad light the object could be mistaken for a bed-warming pan!

With other acoustic instruments it would be possible to compile a check list but a resonator banjo has approximately 125 components.  Banjos are intricate things – minor parts are easy to replace or repair but take the example of a friend’s bid for a Deering.  He discovered a split either side of the 5th string peg that the seller insisted wasn’t there when it left him.  The subsequent negotiations, time spent, travel to various luthiers and repair costs turned that bargain into a cautionery tale.

As a prospective buyer you are able to ask questions through ebay email.  Buyers asking for information have the choice as to whether that info gets posted for all to see.  Do you want public disclosure or are you going to play your cards close to your chest?  Best to ask questions early as sellers can take awhile to reply – time’s ticking away; you still haven’t got the answers – do you bid anyway and risk it, or let a potential bargain slip through your fingers?

Buyer:  “Does it have dual co-ordinator rods?” 
Seller:  “Don’t know – where are they?” 
Buyer:  “Inside the resonator”
Seller:  “What’s that?” 

Good luck and good hunting!

Fingerstyle Productions, Nambour, Queensland, Australia.

Website created and maintained by Bewitching Webworks.