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Your cart is empty.In the 1980’s, you could to walk into any music store in America and buy a decent entry-level banjo for less than $200. In recent years, that price has risen to $300 or more for competitive models in this category, while in many cases quality being the area that suffers the most. To meet this need, Saga developed the Rover RB-20 Openback 5 sting banjo by creating student and mid-level instruments with traditional features and modern refinements, this instrument is designed to perform faithfully and last a lifetime.
j.r. potter
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024
banjo is light and very easy to play. I have banjo that is very heavey and is a great banjo for pro work however just for practice the rover fits the bill.
Lonely Trucker
Reviewed in Canada on August 13, 2022
Even after doing a proper setup on this banjo (tightening drum head, etc) it just sounds awful. Boomy, no banjo 'snap' to it at all. To its credit, it plays in tune, but man, does it sound bad. If you are just looking for a banjo to start learning on, the neck is fine to learn on, but you will end up wanting to upgrade very quickly to something that actually sounds like a banjo. There are other options for beginner banjos (like the Gold Tone AC1) in this price range that are actually excellent. Unless Amazon has a sale on this Rover and it is dirt cheap (i.e. under $200 cdn) IMO it is just not worth the purchase.
Sewnwings
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021
I like the product so far, but the fifth string nut is made of a cheap plastic and broke after a week of very light use. Getting the nut out was difficult and I had to read up on how to replace it. Not easy. No one sells pre-notched nuts for banjos.
zebracloak
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2020
I barely started playing this Rover RB-20 Open Back 5 String Banjo, when the 5th string nut, or "pip", snapped, leaving the 5th string unplayable! The pip was made of some sort of acrylic or synthetic material instead of bone. A decent sounding banjo, but the parts are deceptively low quality. Expect frequent repairs.
WOODRAT 3
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2019
Hey, If you know how to play a little bit, or want to learn. This is an excellent beginning. I had to use my Snark tuner to bring it up to tune of D,B,G,D,G, took 10 minutes of twiddling, then off to the plinking tunes. It is very well made, having no problems, looks nice, very light. I'm a year and a half beginner, enjoy every hour of learning tunes via tablature, or by ear, or make up tunes. Recommend Wayne Erbsens book ie, for Ignoranuses, to enhance your enjoyment. But this is a great value banjo, for ANYONE.
Mark Harmon
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2018
Awesome Awesome Awesome. For this price you can't beat this deal with a stick. It was about a year ago when I bought this banjo and I love it as much today as the day I bought it. It looks every bit as good (well, a little wear around the strings of course) and sounds like brand new, and I use it a lot. I play and sing Irish drinking songs. for which you need a four-string tenor banjo. I recommend tuning it with a smartphone app called gStrings, which allows you to tune each string to the precise correct Hertz. As I said, if you want a basic banjo that looks and works great, there is nothing anywhere near this price range that is so good.
Declan Cullen
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2016
Very nice banjo
Customer
Reviewed in Canada on January 16, 2016
Ordered it twice and I received it broken twice. Not a good quality banjo.
Kevin A. Lynch
Reviewed in Canada on January 24, 2015
Arrived in 48 hours even tho I chose free shipping. lol amazing. Anyways in my opinion this is the best banjo in this price range, provided you don't mind the body being made of composite and not wood... A durable banjo that seems to stay mostly in tune.
Ian
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2014
Doing research, I found this banjo to be the most repeatedly mentioned under the "good starter banjo" category. I decided to pick it up, and do not regret it. The action was a little high when it arrived, but after the initial set up it sounds good for what it is. Very durable and the neck feels good under my fingers.However, there is a reason this did not get 5 stars.The tuning pegs are supposed to be good for the money, and I agree; the instrument holds a tune well.The issue I had was that the 5th string tuning peg, which unlike the other four is made from plastic, and crumbled off of the mechanism. This made it extremely hard to tune up the 5th string. Not a very big deal, though. I bought a replacement peg and slapped it right on. Good as new!For anyone looking for a good starter instrument, I would highly recommend this banjo.
Railfarmer
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2012
I didn't know anything about banjos but my wife's always wanted one so I got her this one because it was "right priced." She didn't know anything about banjos either but she likes this one and she does play other musical instruments so she's way ahead of me.She checked this banjo out with some people who do know banjos and apparently this banjo is a good banjo for beginners and beyond. Apparently the string tightener mechanisms having the kinds of gears they do makes them better than expected for a less expensive banjo so that seems to be a sign of better quality than some cheap banjos might have.I do know that it sounds good in the hands of someone who plays well. Hopefully it will also sound good when my wife plays it too ;-)
chrisbarbaree
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2011
This is a great sounding banjo with a good price. I'm fairly new to the banjo. I've played my friends banjos and ones in music shops but that's pretty much it. I was skeptical because I've never played an open back but I'm very happy with it. Tunes easy and stays in tune. No buzzing or anything. It's surprisingly a great quality banjo.
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