Your cart is empty.
Your cart is empty.Stagg BJM30-G 6 String Bluegrass Banjo with Metal Pot
Brandon J
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2024
Im just gonna start out by saying ive always wanted a banjo. I never wanted to bother with a 5 string, so i bought this six string. Ive been playing guitar for 15 years, and thought, why not, its like a guitar with banjo sound. Within the first 10 minutes of it arriving at my house, it came basically with the back hanging off, missing the nuts. One of the drum head tensioners was off as well. I just shrugged it off as shipping problems. Then came time to set it up. I set it up, set the bridge in the correct place, and proceeded to slowly tune it to e440 (E standard). And both the low steing just snapped. B string snapped at A flat, and High E string snapped at D#. Im really not impressed with the instrument. This put a really bad taste in my mouth and im extremely dissatisfied. Its sad that i was so excited for it, only for it to be garbage, and that im sending it back same day.Would not reccomend.
TANKMAN
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023
I searched all the usual guitar sites. This is the best one for the best price. Very high quality and beautiful. Souinds fantastic, BUT... you will have to be experienced with guitars at least. It requires a setup for the bridge, and some neck adjustments. I added lighter guage strings on the bottom 4 strings. There is NO manual, however Email to the manufacturer was easy and very prompt with answers. I love it. When you get it set up, it's one LOUD, very authentic, banjo. When I don't feel like guitar, this makes me feel good. I recommend it and I've been playing 57 years.
S. Beaulieu
Reviewed in Canada on June 9, 2023
arrivé dans un bon état et bien emballé. Le luthier qui l'a évalué a dit qu'il s'agissait d'un bon instrument de nivea uintermédiaire et débutant
Stuart
Reviewed in Canada on February 27, 2023
Perfect gift
J. Blilie
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2021
I bought this BANJITAR as a gift. The recipient wanted to get banjo sound without having learn a second instrument. This is a BANJITAR, which is a banjo body and a guitar neck. If you tune to guitar standard tuning, you can use the same standard chords as if you were playing a guitar.This is a very nicely turned-out BANJITAR. The mahogany resonator body is very nicely made and finished. Same for the neck, rim, drumhead, etc. The bridge is a decent one and of appropriate height.I am a guitar technician. The scale half-length (nut to 12th fret) is 13.2 inches, making the scale 36.4 inches. This places the bridge quite close to the tailpiece, pretty accurately shown in the photo on Amazon.It took a while to locate the bridge accurately, since was not installed on receipt (as was proper, having the BANJITAR fully rigger would invite damage during shipping). Expect to spend some time doing this. (Or have it set up at a reputable music shop.) I tuned to standard guitar tuning. With 6 strings, this seems like a pretty heavy load on the drumhead. We may tune down two half-steps to: D-G-C-F-A-d, just to reduce the load a bit.The bridge is straight, it does not have the varying compensation saddle positions one typically sees on guitar and mandolin bridge saddles. I thought this would be a problem and the compensation would be way off up the neck. More on this below.The main adjustment required (aside from positioning the bridge) was a truss rod adjustment (4mm hex wrench). The neck had huge forward bow as received, when tuned to standard guitar tuning (E-A-D-G-B-e). About 1.5 turns on the truss rod nut (easy to access at the headstock, solid action with the hex wrench) got the forward bow to where I like it: Very slight.I then corrected the tuning back to pitch and checked the compensation at the 12th fret. Surprise! Not bad at all. Probably 4 of the 6 strings were very close to accurate. The other two were within 5 cents of correct. This is with no angle to the bridge placement. I'm not sure why this works; but it does. And the bridge was place at about 26.4 inches + maybe 1 mm from the nut -- so very little compensation. Puzzling but pleasing that it works.The fretwork seems to be pretty good (no obviously high or low frets).I wish they had included information on the strings included with the BANJITAR, so I could be sure to maintain the setup without extra work. But that is a small thing.For a budget BANJITAR, I can recommend this one.(I am emphasizing BANJITAR, because this is that hybrid instrument, neither a guitar nor a "standard" long-necked banjo (e.g. 5-string banjo or bluegrass banjo). This instrument allows a guitar player to immediately make sounds similar to a banjo without needing to learn a new instrument.)
J R
Reviewed in Canada on July 11, 2016
It takes a while to properly set up, but once that is done, the banjo is a great one to learn on. The components are of a fair quality but the assembly is rather sloppy. E.G. Tailpiece mounted off to one side and one of the tuners is mounted crooked and the mounting holes will show if I correct it.WARNING: If you have never set up instruments before like setting the bridge position, adjusting the neck angle and getting the right drum tension, either take it to a music store that will do it for you OR, do your research. There are some excellent videos online.Also, buy some better strings and put them on during the set up. The ones that it came with had all sorts of ??? stuck to them.
Don Grose
Reviewed in Canada on September 28, 2015
Nice change of pace for the odd song to add little fun and variety...it is no more and no less than you would expect for the price.
always skeptical
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2015
I'm no banjo expert, and I'm sure another reviewer is correct to say that this is not a true bluegrass instrument, but....This is a cool banjitar. It's a banjo made for guitar players like me. The closest animal in the guitar kingdom would be a resonator guitar. And at that, it excels!Stagg is not a well-known brand in the US, but this appears to be essentially the same Chinese-made banjo you'd find from other brands, like Fender, Washburn, etc. Quality of materials is very good. Fit and finish is great. The bridge is not setup when you get it, but setting it up and intonation is a breeze.Where banjitars appear to differ is scale length and nut width. This one has a 26-1/4" scale and the nut is 1-11/16" wide. Very guitar-player friendly.Strings appear to be 0.12's. I tried both an E (guitar standard) and a D# tuning, and both worked well. I haven't experimented with open tunings yet, but I will.Since Amazon provides no pictures of the back, you should know that mine came with sort of a sunburst finish on the neck (black at head and heel), and the back of the resonator is gloss mahogany. I'm sure it's laminated, but it looks nice.The tuners work well and appear to be solid Schaller clones.The only weirdness I could detect is pretty slight: the string were ball-end instead of normal banjo strings. The tailpiece can take both types, but when used with ball-end style strings, you may get a buzz from the tailpiece resting on the strings. For me, the buzz went away when the strings were tuned at full tension, but I may stick a piece of felt under the tailpiece to ensure it never buzzes.....
Dr H
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2014
Standard bluegrass banjos have four full-length strings and a short drone string. A six string bluegrass banjo would have five full length strings and a short drone string. This instrument has _six_ full length strings.It is not a "bluegrass" banjo; it's a banjitar (sometimes called a "guitanjo"), which is basically a guitar neck stuck on a banjo body, so that guitar player can sound like banjo players without actually having to learn to play banjo. It's tuned like a guitar, not like a banjo. These instruments are fine for what they are, but they should not be sold as "bluegrass banjos".
Recommended Products
