I agree with what Butch said -- you can get great instruments for great prices from a pawn shop, put you can also get complete pieces of crap. If you can take someone who knows banjos shopping with you it can be good. If you don't know what you are looking at, beware.

I work for a instrument building company in Seattle that also operates an acoustic music store, so I've had the opportunity to play on a lot of banjos in a lot of price ranges. The Deering Goodtime banjos are always very good instruments for the money. The Gold Tones are good as well, but I'd probably go with the Deering just because the company has such a good reputation for quality work and good after-sale support (rarely needed).

Most people use open back banjos and clawhammer style for old time mountain music, and resonator banjos and three-finger picking style for bluegrass. But as Banjer said above, everyone should play the instrument and the style that makes sense to them. Or make up your own style. As long as it sounds nice, you can cheerfully ignore the "rules".

John Peekstok