Backyard Music's Suitcase Banjo is a light weight, 28.5" long,  fretted 5-string open-back banjo designed as travel or backpacking banjo. The tuning gears are tucked under the pot; ball-end strings are threaded through holes at the first position end of the banjo, pass over the bridge, and through grommets into a stringing channel under the pot of the banjo. It takes a few days to get used to tuning the banjo but you soon get the hang of it.

• Made in USA by banjo players (unlike most banjos you can buy for less than $500)
• One-piece neck of solid, legally-harvested Nicaraguan Mahogany, with 19 frets and a vibrating string length of 23.25"
• Side-of-neck fret markers at 7th, 10th, 12th, 15th and 17th fret.  5th fret clearly designated by 5th string tuning gear
• Geared tuning machines for all 5 strings (many inexpensive banjos have a friction-held 5th string tuner that inevitably slips)
• 5th string tuner has a very high turn ratio to facilitate fine tuning
• Pot is 9.25" in diameter, and made of 1/8", 3-ply poplar plywood held on a hoop made from industrial mailing tube (1/4" thick wall)
• Tail section accommodates both loop-end and ball-end strings (you never know what is available when you break a string)
• Strings on banjo are medium gauge (.010", .012", .017", .024", .010")
• Total weight = only 2 lbs! (most banjos weigh 8-20 lbs)
• Tunes to G or A major in standard G tuning.
• Has two screw eyes installed for attaching a strap

• Excellent musical experience from a durable instrument.
• Ease of assembly.  Our pre-cut instrument kits are designed for amateur builders and children to assemble.
• Affordability. For 30 years Backyard Music has designed stringed instruments and instrument kits to be as affordable and as easy to assemble as possible - without sacrificing any playability. As musicians, we build harps, dulcimers, and banjos of a quality that we ourselves enjoy playing at home, around the campfire, and in the classroom. Many Backyard instruments become lifetime companions for the people who buy or build them.

To achieve affordability, we substitute inexpensive materials only where the substitution does not compromise the musical experience of the player. Thus our dulcimers and folk harps have soundboxes of durable corrugated cardboard rather than wood, and our banjo pots are made with plywood disks rather than drum skin. The result is an instrument that has - in comparison to typical instruments of its kind- somewhat less volume when played, much less weight when carried, and far lower cost than instruments of comparable musical quality.

However, we do not compromise on features critical to a satisfying playing experience.  Unlike many low-cost models, our instruments have:

• Great Action
  Action refers to the distance between the string and the frets/fingerboard. If the action is too low, strings buzz. If the action is too high, the instrument is unnecessarily difficult to play and sounds out of tune when played up the neck. We carefully adjust the action on all our assembled, and look over each and every kit we send out to make sure that it will easily assemble with good action.
  
• Geared Tuners
  All our banjos and dulcimers use geared tuning machines with a 14:1 gear ratio. Banjo 5th string tuning machines have a 28:1 ratio.  This makes the tuning process smooth and easy. Our tuners won't slip, so once the strings stretch out our instruments generally stay in tune. Good geared tuning machines are expensive, so many inexpensive instruments use inferior friction pegs or geared tuners that slip. Low quality tuning pegs make tuning difficult (especially for novice musicians), and it's no fun for anyone to try to play an instrument that keeps going out of tune! Our harps use the standard zither pins and nylon harp strings spaced the usual distance apart.
  
• Excellent Intonation
  If fret and bridge placement isn't exact, an instrument will play out of tune no matter what you do.
  
• Wood that won't bow under string tension
  Over time, string tension can cause wood to bow or warp. This is particularly likely to occur when cheaper soft woods are used. We use Nicaraguan mahogany for our banjo necks and dulcimer fretboards, and ash or maple for our harp frames. Treat them right and our instruments will last you a lifetime.
  

• Read reviews of Backyard Music banjos at BanjoHangout.org.
• Read review of our Basic Banjo in October '06 edition of Banjo Newsletter.

The Basic Banjo is shipped inside a durable 4 mil plastic bag (useful for future rain protection), in a shipping box that is designed for use as a carrying case.