I bought a Framus long neck banjo in 1967 and am still playing it(at the moment in a Cajun band called 'cahoots' which works out of Perth western australia. If you go to our website www.thecahoots.com there is a picture of the band with me holding said instrument. As everone said the thing is built like a tank and still going strong with the original plastic skin,much better than velum('Oh' I hear the purists say but it's a brighter sound and it NEVER moves! Played it in all sorts of tunings the lowest being open D. Hope this has been of interest to someone!