Hondo Banjo II

The Hondo Banjo II is a basic 5 string banjo, the year of which it was made I do not know. A producer who I'm an assistant to has this banjo at his home studio where I've played around with it a bit but have yet to record anything with it. I'm not the best banjo player in the world by a long shot as I've only recently began to dabble with it a bit. I don't really know what kinds of materials this is made of, but it's not an acoustic/electric banjo so there are no pick ups or electronics.

UTILIZATION

The overall feel of the Hondo Banjo II is pretty good. It's not the smoothest playing banjo that I've encountered, but isn't hard to play by any stretch of the imagination. Of course half the battle with me and banjos is learning how to play it properly, but I find that learning on this one is pretty easy and not restrictive at all...

SOUNDS

The overall sound of the Hondo Banjo II is nice a vibrant with a sound that will definitely stick out. It might not be the most professional sounding banjo out there, but for my purposes with playing it, it sounds just fine. There's not much you can down with the timbre beyond manipulating it with your playing, as is the case with all strictly acoustic banjos. As I said earlier, I've yet to record with it so I can't say how the sound would translate for this application.

OVERALL OPINION

I don't think it's too easy to get your hands on a Hondo Banjo II, and while it's a pretty nice playing and sounding banjo, it's not one for the ages and it's not like you can't easily replace it with another similar banjo. I'm not sure what kind of price this would command used, but it's probably not much as Hondo isn't exactly a brand name. It's definitely a nice little banjo if you can get one on the cheap, otherwise it's probably not worth it...