Vangoa 5 String Banjo 26 Inch, MINI Travel Banjo Beginner Kit with Remo Head, Open Back & Closed Solid Back with beginner Kit, Comfortable Carrying Bag

It’s a great banjo for a beginner like me! I am very happy with the banjo. It comes with everything you need (although I did purchase better fitting finger picks). I know some say it doesn’t hold after tuning - which I found true between plays. But it hasn’t happened while I am playing. Just gives me more tuning practice. :) I would recommend this banjo to others.

Got this for my GF. She's just learning and seems to like it very well. It's economically made. But not a cheap toy. Tone is good and holds tuning quite better than expected. I'm might get one for myself in the near future.

This is my first ever banjo and it works great. I can't speak to its quality compared to something more expensive, but it works well for an entry level banjo and I'm having fun with it. The tuner it comes with works great and is easy to use. Everything is still working after a few months of use, overall a good buy.

I have to say, for $125 I wasn't expecting much. And out of the box it was very difficult to play. As I travel ALOT in my job as a touring guitar tech, I wanted a banjo that would fit in my suitcase, and figured it was worth a roll of the dice. Being a professional guitar tech, I was afforded the ability to make this little banjo (what I would call) usable. 1st I had to shim the neck a bit to bring down the action. Then I put heavier gauge strings on it, so I could tune it to open G and still feel some resistance while picking. I built a set of strings that are 11, 28, 18, 14, 11. Also I had to cut down all of the nut slots significantly, (including the high G 5th string). The high G should rest ON the 5th fret. It was way too high. In fact all the nut slots were so high, that when you fretted any string on the first few frets, it would press the string so far sharp, the fretted notes were very sharp and out of tune. Due to it's size (and my fat fingers) it's still going to take some getting used to. As it sits now, it plays fairly well. For $125 I'd say, after a proper setup, it's well worth the price. And there's a ton of accessories included. I'm quite happy with my purchase.

Admittedly, I am still learning to play banjo; a more experienced player might know better. But this seems perfect for a beginner like me. First, the kit comes with everything you would need to get started (well, except lessons. But you're on the internet--go find some!). The banjo was carefully packed and arrived in pristine condition. I did have to tighten the bolts on the resonator and placing the bridge was a bit tricky (again, I'm new to this) but this was basically ready to play right out of the box. Six weeks or so later and I am thrilled I chose to learn banjo and bought this one for my first. It sounds great (even my friend who has played guitar for decades says so), looks great, and I love playing it! My one small complaint is that the two nuts/clips for the strap have both come loose at different times, meaning I had to completely remove the resonator and retighten them. I wish those bolts were a little longer. So now I have to obsessively check them to make sure they're still tight.

Great banjo and reasonable Price. But metal finger picks included are Too soft of a metal to be usable, more Like tin foil than metal picks.

I'm an advanced banjo player and have owned and played many banjos over the decades. I bought the Vangoa mini because my grandsons, age 8 and 5, have expressed a desire to play but aren't big enough to play my full-sized banjos. In other words, this is to be a starter banjo for these children, and as such it seems to me to be ideal. The banjo arrived fully set up; just needed to be tuned to be fully playable. On line there is information about setting the bridge and adjusting the tension rod, but none of that was necessary. This instrument was ready to play out of the box. Some reviews indicate that purchasers were beginners who bought this as an adult starter instrument. It is NOT recommended for that purpose: the spacing on the strings is not ideal for adult-size fingers, especially for a novice player. An advanced player might want this as a novelty instrument, but I see it as best for a child, and for this price, WOW! I couldn't ask for more. The tone, by the way, is high pitched, plunky, and perfectly acceptable. I'm delighted with this purchase. Highly recommended for the purposes described above.

Update after 2 weeks: Im going to leave my original review below but my thoughts have changed over the last 2 weeks. First off a cheap banjo is still better then no banjo. BUT if you are able to spend a little bit more then I would recommend it. The first week things went great, but once I really started learning the fret board I started noticing some issues. You have to press very hard on the strings to get a smooth sound when using the fret board. I was getting alot of muted strings and buzzing. I originally thought it was me, but I got some help with my hand placement technique and it didnt change much. The neck is pretty thick so you really have to reach to get those cords. I decided to speak with someone at a music store. I told them my concerns on neck size and the strength it took to get the cords right and we ended up agreeing that I would try out a Gold Tone CC-50. It is double the price but it also solved every issue I was having. The Gold Tone is way more comfortable and easy to play. So my thoughts are if this is all you can afford then go for it. It's just gonna take even more practice. But if your willing to spend 100-200 more then I would recommend looking into the Gold tone ac-1 or the cc-50. Have a blessed day! This is my first banjo so obviously im not super qualified but I have to say I was nervous how it would sound just based off the cheap price. But so far it sounds amazing. BUT GET YOUR OWN TUNER AND PICKS. The tuner that came with it is awful. I couldn't even get it close to being in tune with the provided tuner, But with a phone app I got it perfect. And the picks are very cheap and not sturdy at all. I use the plastic thumb pick it came with and its fine. But the metal picks are terrible. But I grabbed a pack of Dunlop picks and there great. The bag it comes with is nice. Also the measuring stick for installing your bridge it very nice too. I plan to upgrade once I really learn the banjo. But for learning and not wanting to break the bank I think this is a fantastic option!

Ok for a child tried to return it post office said it would cost me 60 pounds to send it back what a ripoff stuck with a banjo i don't wont

Alles, was man zum Banjospielen braucht. Das Paket ist wirklich komplett. Alles drin, von einem Tuner über Ersatzsaiten bis hin zu den Picks und einer Tasche. Das Banjo lässt sich in normaler G-Stimmung stimmen. Der Hals ist kürzer, aber er ist komplett mit allen Frets. Ansonsten klingt es wie ein Banjo und es ist sogar recht laut. Nur die Nut ist nicht richtig eingekerbt gewesen. Die Saiten lagen in einer dünnen Kerbe oben auf und beim greifen der Seite veränderte sich der Ton gleich um zwei Noten, da man mit herunterdrücken der Saite die Spannung gleich mit ändert. Ganz besonders bei den Saiten 1-3. Der Abstand der Saite zum Hals war viel zu groß. Hier half ein spezielles Feilenset für diese Zwecke, wo man die Kerbe abgestimmt auf die Saitendicke tiefer feilt. Die Saite sollte dicht über dem Hals sein, ohne dass sie beim spielen schnarrt. Ist das getan, ist alles prima. (Feilenset: 9,90 Euro, Leere: 5 Euro) Es ist ein guter Begleiter, wenn man auf Reisen ist, da es nicht so viel Platz wegnimmt. Und es ist natürlich leichter, als die großen Banjos. Ob es deswegen gut für Anfänger ist, weiss ich nicht, denn man spielt es, wie jedes "große" Banjo auch. Ich finde nicht, das es auf Grund seiner Größe einfacher zu spielen ist. Man muss hier besonders mit der linken Hand mit spitzen Fingern spielen, damit man wirklich nur eine Saite berührt. Und für den Preis ist die Qualität gut. Sollte man aber nicht mit einem Banjo vergleichen, was ein paar hundert Euro kostet.

The bottom-line is that this is a high quality instrument at a fantastic price. Pop in the bridge, tune it up and start playing real banjo tunes, because this is a real banjo. This is about the size of a tenor ukulele and has a higher pitch than a standard banjo, although you can loosen it up a bit. The bindings are nice, not cheap looking, and the fret work is solid and finished. The tuners are high-quality no-name brand, you will have no trouble with them keeping tune. All other metal gear is likewise high-quality, no-name brand steel and the wood is indeed real.

EL INSTRUMENTO LLEGÓ EN LA PARTE TRASERA CON UN FISURA, PARA EL PRECIO QUE TIENE, HUBIERA ESPERADO EL PRODUCTO EN BUENAS CONDICIONES

As a beginner, I had no idea which banjo to select. After spending weeks reading about the instrument, I decided on this one because i) versatility - I could remove the resonator if I wanted; ii) price - hard to beat; iii) it came with a good selection of accessories; and iv) some good video reviews online. What I didn't expect i) how incredibly well made this was (I'm no expert, but I think most people would agree this is a very well constructed product); ii) how nice it sounds (again, no expert, but this sounds very pleasant to me; iii) the included finger picks (if you're going to learn picking first) are poor - it would be advisable to pick up a set of National metal/plastic picks; iv) the strap has a chemical smell to it and was completely unusable; v) buy a stand - at least for me, I'm far more likely to play if all I have to do is pick it up instead of struggling to take it out of the zippered bag; vi) after about a month of fine tuning, I have barely touched the tuners! I've had it now for about five months and I actually find it easier to play than a guitar and not significantly more challenging than a ukulele (I started guitar, banjo and uke at the same time.) The uke, I purchased based on advice that it's the easiest string instrument to play, but now that I've had both for about the same time, I would say the learning curve is about the same; different technique, but similar technical difficulty. Most beginner uke lessons start on strumming chords and accompanyment (sing/play); being a poor singer, I had trouble finding *complete* songs that sounded good solo/fingerstyle on the uke. Not so with the banjo. Even though I had never previously heard many of the songs I'm learning, the banjo sounds great and I'm enjoying it much more than the uke.