My favorite clawhammer player, Dwight Diller of West Virginia, just sent me his instructional video; the banjo on the box looks like a Vega Tu-Ba-Phone, but Cedar Mountain Banjos of Brevard, North Carolina, makes a Dwight Diller line of banjos with wooden pots, no tone rings. He told me he used to carry some of the banjos on the road with him, use them in concert, and sell the one he had played, and use another in the next concert.

Quite a few good open back banjos are available these days (most clawhammer players use them, I'm told): Deerings, Bart Reiters, Wildwoods, and Chanterelles seem to be the most widely available. I have a Wildwood Tu-Ba-Phone Minstrel which I love. A great sounding, very playable instrument. Chanterelles are available fretless as well as fretted, and Bart Reiter seems to have rights to the Whyte Laydie style name, although their Whyte Laydies are as likely to have Tubaphone tonerings as Whyte Laydies. There are also some less expensive ones available from Deering, Gold Tone, etc.

If you want a good look at the variety of new and used banjos available, check out Elderly Instruments: They have several dozen for sale at any one time, and their website has pictures of most of them.

www.elderly.com.

For more on Dwight Diller, check out

www.dwightdiller.com

and for the Dwight Diller banjos, check out Cedar Mountain Banjos at

www.cedarmtnbanjos.com

--seed