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Buckeye Custom 12" WL submitted 7/15/2008 Submitter tridentum (see all reviews from this person) Where Purchased Directly from Greg Year Purchased 2008 Price Paid 1550 ($US) Sound Every banjo lives and dies by the set up. I swapped Greg's proprietary bridge for a light Moon. Tightened the head gently over the course of a few days and the banjo found its voice. It's a boomer with a great WL sound. Skin head combined with the Moon bridge provides a really nice balance of treble and bass. Very good clarity and punch. Fourth string booms. Excellent sound that will improve over time. Sound Rating 9 Setup Action was set up perfectly and this banjo is a joy to play. I made some significant changes to set up to suit my personal taste and the skin head is still settling in. Greg sets them up nicely but with a skin head you're going to spend some time in the first few days tweaking. I did swap out his bridge as it appeared to choke off some of the sound. and response - at least to my ear. Went with a light Moon bridge but might experiment with a medium version. Anyway, I didn't need to change much to move it along - new bridge, some head adjustment and I ditched the light gauge strings for Ome heavies. Any banjo needs set up adjustments after a trip in the mail and especially one with a skin head. Greg had it set up well but my adjustments brought it in line with the sound I was looking for. Rating set up is almost pointless. Most banjo players prefer to do their own set up. Setup Rating 5 Appearance An absolute beauty. We went with dark-stained walnut no inlay (by the way, Greg does some beautiful inlay work). Square headstock with routed corners, walnut verneer on the rim and a beautifull ogee at the 5th string; black knobbed tuners. All of the work is flawless. Can't say enough about the neck. Greg's stuff really reminds one of the classic open backs of the late 19th and early 20th century. Appearance Rating 10 Reliability Solid banjo, built well, with good components. Should be a horse. Reliability Rating 10 Customer Service Greg is a fine banjo maker and a swell guy. Communicates well and understands what you want. Plus he tosses in a free t-shirt with your banjo. Customer Service 10 Components All comnponents are of the highest quality. Love the Gotoh tuners. Components Rating 10 Overall Comments Another small-shop banjo maker who is really making a name for himself. This must be the golden age of old time banjo making because there are a host of these guys out there. What separates Greg is his customer service and price range. A custom 12" WL for under $2K is unheard of among the established makers, and Greg's work is outstanding. Do yourself a favor - check out his website and see what he is doing. You cannot go wrong with a Buckeye banjo. Excellent workmanship, great sound at an outstanding price. Well done, Greg! Overall Rating 10