Huge banjo fan here. Had many (and oh how I wished I'd hung on to a couple of them.....coulda bought a new house for what they'd be worth today)

Started off with a "melmac" Harmony, went to a Vega F-W 5, and then found a neat turn of the century Cole's 'Eclipse'. Got a 1923 Deluxe Vegaphone and had it converted to a five string, and played that for years. In the eighties I had a Six String Deering built for me, that apparently is owned now by someone in The Bare Naked Ladies (haven't seen it on an album cover so I'm not sure)

In the early eighties I started to get very impressed with the Ibanez Mastertone copies, and have owned three of them since then....great banjos at very little money. Really good to travel with, 'cause if anything bad happens, it's not like having to replace a Mastertone.

Currently I've got two Ibanez five strings from the seventies....one converted to a frailing banjo and tuned down to E, and one set up for bluegrass. Oh...and one little teeny Vega Banjo Uke.

Had a few tenors as well, the best of which was an old Orpheum.....but I just never got into the tenor tuning on a serious basis....maybe I will someday.

Cheers

Rick