LeftyBassist.com

I've been playing for awhile and getting some gigs playing the banjo and I am looking to upgrade from my cheapo banjo. If anyone has a little experience on that matter. I was thinking of a Gold Tone CC100 or OB250 with an added clipped microphone.

I wouldn't say play, exactly; more like try to play... I have this 1963 Model 3, Style 3 ODE. It's a "Pete Seeger" long scale, and tuning/playing it is kind of a pain in the butt. Very well made banjo, though. If you are planning to get serious playing a banjo, I have to say that there are better ones for the money than a Gold Tone. They're not bad; but you can get better for the money. I did a lot of looking before I lucked into the ODE, and you might want to look closely at Deering banjos. They make several price lines, and several of each are (or were) available left-handed. I've had a couple of Deerings in hand (student and next step up); not expensive at all, and very nice, IMO.

I don’t, which is crazy because I live in Alabama.

Thank you for your response GIBrat51, I have also been considering a Deering. I definitely want the resonator as it gives the option to have it on or to remove it.
@Matt, there is something joyous about playing the banjo, you just can't be sad if you hear one. For some reason, I find it quite easy because most country-bluegrass stuff tend to be 1-4-5 in G, C or D and it does not take too much work to play along with other guys once you figured out major, minor and 7th chords as it is tuned in G open.
This country/bluegrass guy who gigs a lot around Tahoe called me for a gig the other day. I had played bass with him before and assumed I was going to play bass again. The day before, I noticed he had me listed as the "banjo player" on a FB post. I was a little worried thinking I was going to play the banjo right off the cuff but it went just fine. Unlike bass you are not driving the music and there is less pressure to know the changes and not screw up (you can't hide that on bass). Anyway, it is a really cool instrument to get into.

This isn't really helpful as I don't play the banjo and have no particular plans to learn. But I do love the instrument and bluegrass music in general, so here's a bit of visual banjo pr0n and audio banjo pr0n.

Cheers,

-tim


http://www.romerobanjos.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV7ZTwqC8ZI