great banjo! great looks, and great sound! very resonant and, and loud. plays like a dream, no problems!!! 5 stars.

I see alot of people trying to call this a "beginers banjo" That simply is not true. honestly, unless you want to go to the $2000 mark, this is the best you can get bar none.

The Goodtime 2 is a wonderful and durable instrument. I walked into the store and it was love at first sight. Despite the lack of a tone ring, it has a nice warm and pleasing sound, and the woodwork is well done. My only regret with this model is the plastic nut, and the poor quality of the chrome plating other than that, this is a wonderful instrument for its price, and I would really recommend it for any beginning student, or for someone who wants a lower end banjo that they are not afraid to ding up.

After a year of doing banjo shopping to try to get an upgrade for my Iida 229 that I've owned for seven years, I finally made the decision to get a Deering Goodtime. When I first read about this banjo, I was a little scared because I had read about other banjos that said they were great for the money but, they actually stunk. Fortuanely I had the chance to try a Goodtime in a music store and when I put it in my hands and started pickin' I realized it was better than I had thought and that the description online was right. I have tried to see if they're are other banjos like it but, they're aren't any!

I bought the Goodtime 2 as a second banjo, which I primarily use to teach my wife and kids banjo. It has a good tone (for this price range) and a decent neck and playability (especially for this price range). I used a Dremel tool and sharpie to add fret markers on the side of the neck, and it looks factory. (The fret markers inlayed on the fret board itself are black dots, so my black sharpie dots on the side match fine.) This banjo is very light, since it does not have the typical metal tonering that most high-dollar banjos do. This keeps the price down, lowers weight, but also lowers volume and diminishes overall tone. It doesn't affect playability, or ones ability to learn with this instrument. My wife can't play my Gibson Earl Scruggs model due to the weight - it hurts her back, so this is great for her. You will want to swap out the bridge. I put a Snuffy Smith bridge on it, which greatly improved the tone. My other recommendation is D'Addario phosphor bronze strings, light gauge. This banjo was designed fro light gauge strings. My biggest complaints are the arm rest and the tailpiece. I found you can rig the tailpiece lower, but that doesn't help much. It's the old Vega-style armrest, which is so small it hurts. The better armrests will not fit it, since it doesn't have the standard number of j-hooks holding the head down. Likewise, the tailpiece is not a standard mounting mechanism, so you can't upgrade it. But for a low-cost first banjo, I haven't seen anything better.