The last posting, about getting a used guitar neck, will not work easily, owing to the scale length of the fretboard. You'd have to lift off the fretboard, move it "out" (peghead-ward) a couple of frets, and use it that way. And you'd do a lot of rigging to get it to work. I know, 'cause I considered it once when I had a neck available. go with the commercial makers.

Deering's several models are the best, but the priciest. I've got a Goldtone (with single-coil pickup, to boot), and they have two models, of which the pricier is the better (I've got the cheaper one). There are still some others being made and sold these days, but the brand names slip my mind. I have seen 'em on the Ebay site, though, and that might be a decent way to find one at a reasonable price.

If you can find a used Gibson or Vega, those are usually pretty good, but they command "collector" prices.

As for whether they sound as good as a five-string, of course they don't, but a five-string can't sound like a guitar, either. The guitar-banjo, like the mandolin-banjo*, is a creature unto itself, unlike neither of its parents, but lovely as only an ugly child can be. Don't expect to replace the brighter sound of the tenor or five-string, but seek this hybrid for its own unique sound, and you'll do fine.

As with all special-use instruments, the guitar-banjo is not normally used for every occasion, but then, neither is the acoustic guitar, nor the fiddle, nor even the voice. Apply it like a tool to the job at hand, and use other tools when the job has changed.

Bob Clayton

* I have one of those, too, a beauty of a Vega, as well as a no-name banjo-uke. No banjo-autoharp yet, but I'm thinking of how it could be done.

Banjo-accordion, anyone?