Several dealers and customers have asked why they have to wait so long to get Deering banjos. Unlike many guitar companies who have warehouses with literally hundreds if not thousands of guitars in storage and then shipped when ordered, Deering makes your banjo, from scratch, when your order is placed. We still make every banjo by hand and though we make more banjos than all other American banjo makers, our “one at a time” approach and high quality cannot be rushed.
We employ a small group of extremely talented craftsmen. Each of our skilled artisans plays a crucial role in the building of every banjo. Virtually all of our jigs and tooling has been designed and built by Greg Deering and our staff. We are banjo specialists and our life’s focus is on building the best banjos in the world, regardless of price.
Banjo demand is generating more orders than ever in history, and our specialization in building only banjos gives you an edge over buying a banjo from every other multi-instrument builder. You benefit from our never-ending focus on banjo tone development. You also benefit from our continual improvements to develop better banjo building techniques which not only make banjos play and sound better, but help keep them affordable as well.
If you are having trouble finding a Deering banjo quickly, please hang in there. We are working harder than ever to make more world-class banjos than ever in the history of the instrument without compromising the quality that has long been associated with Deering.
Deering would love to have a warehouse with lots of banjos ready to ship, but unlike a guitar, banjos left in warehouses lose their beautifully musical, precision set-up.
Also, when just one of our staff is out sick, production is impacted. When tooling breaks or otherwise needs repair, only Deering craftsmen have the knowledge enough to repair it, because they likely had a hand in building it, which delays them from building banjos which delays us shipping your order. This is not a concern for our customers or dealers, and is normal in any business, but is meant to illustrate why our banjos might seem a little difficult to find right now.
The intense demand for our banjos has already inspired us to double our production of Goodtime banjos and increase our Deering, Vega and Tenbrooks banjo production 50%. We are making excellent progress.
As the banjo market continues to grow, Deering will continue to increase production capacity which will create shorter wait times. But this increase in production must not be allowed to negatively affect Deering’s high quality standards. It is not possible to “slap a Deering banjo together”. Training new craftsmen to build the world’s finest banjos is a slow process. These builders must possess the passion for quality that has made Deering the most sought after banjos in the world.
In the meantime, we’ve asked our dealers to plan their inventory for 2013 to ensure they have banjos available.
We ask also for our customers’ continued patience and we want our customers to understand that we are building your banjo from the moment we get the order from your dealer.
Our best dealers have banjos scheduled all year long so if a customer wants to order a particular model of banjo, and the dealer doesn’t have that model in stock, the dealer can change a future order to the model the customer wants. This can shorten your wait time from over a year, to about 90 days. (depending on model of course. Some of the fancier banjos take longer just because of all the intricate hand work….but many models will fit this time frame.)
We are encouraging every Deering dealer to take active steps to stock more banjos to accommodate the increased interest in Deering banjos worldwide. Click on the button below to find a Deering dealer near you.
Absolutely every banjo we make, from the Goodtime Series all the way up through the Private Collection is made here in our shop in southern California and…. we only make banjos! We don’t assemble banjos from imported necks and resonators and rims. We manufacture every neck, every rim, and every resonator, from raw wood and metal right here in our California shop. Don’t believe me? Come visit and take our factory tour and watch it happen. Deering is the last banjo company in America who makes banjos from scratch under one roof. Just like “the good old days.”
Don’t buy an imported banjo made and assembled by workers who don’t understand what they are building. Buy a real banjo.
Buy a real American made Deering banjo.
Let us build a banjo just for you.
It will be worth the wait.