Banjos

A banjo is a complicated instrument to inspect. It has a wooden resonator, a metal tone ring, and a taut-stretched head, all of which must work together to get the true banjo sound.

But the first thing I look at is the neck: I lay a straightedge along the fingerboard to check for warping. A warp of as little as a tenth of an inch can make a banjo hard to tune. Alvarez banjos are built to prevent warping, with a bias-cut Nato mahogany or hard rock maple neck, laminated resonator shell, and steel reinforcing rods.

I then check the action and adjust the string height - not too high for comfort, but not low enough to buzz against the fingerboard.

I look for a coordinator rod, a sure sign of a high quality instrument. All but one Alvarez banjo has two coordinator rods for increased adjustability, and the neck is attached to the body by a hand cut and finished heel.

Most Alvarez banjos have flat-head tone rings for a deep, resonant tone. The Whyte Eagle features an arched tone ring with a smaller vibrating surface for that special old-time sound - crisp and bright, with a sharper, more responsive tone.