50 years of Hard Work, Dedication, Innovation and Banjos!

Today July 21^st, 2025, is the official date of our 50^th Anniversary!

As I ponder back on those  years it is overwhelming the amount we have done, changes we have seen, long hours worked, economic challenges navigated, friends we have made, artists we have serviced, innovations brought to life, music stores we have worked with, wonderful employees who have been a major part of all these years, and the 186,294 banjos we have brought to the world! I want to thank everyone who has been part of that!

I am going to take a trip down memory lane today.

It all began in 1975 when Janet and Greg Deering’s dream of having a family business manufacturing something of value came to life. Banjos were already a passion of my father's having built his first banjo in his Industrial Arts class at San Diego State University a few years earlier. Musical instruments were and still are in his blood.

My mother, Janet, loved working with her hands and learned from an early age how much she enjoyed being part of making things. As a child, she would energetically assist her father, an engineer in his own right, on projects like building on to their family home. Later, as a teen, Janet worked as a stock girl and seamstress at a local dress shop. She was destined to be involved in making things.

They were married in 1974. A year later, the adventure of Deering Banjos began!

(Janet and Greg Deering, ages 21 and 25, sanding necks on their front porch in 1975)

I attended my first NAMM Show when I was just 6 weeks old, in a bassinette under our exhibit table. It is safe to say I have been involved in our family business pretty much since I was born.  I have seen firsthand how much work and dedication it took to build Deering Banjos literally from nothing more than drive, a strong work ethic, and a desire to make it happen. They persevered and thought outside the box, managing their course through six economic recessions.

(Janet, Jeremiah, Jamie and Greg Deering. Family photo in the Deering Banjos shop 1980)

The amount it takes to build a brand and a company is often underestimated. Having seen it up close in formative years, I admire all who have accomplished it. It is not for the faint of heart. Emotions can run high, challenges can pop up out of nowhere, and you must rise above it, be resilient, and keep your eye on the goal. My folks were an amazing example of this.

For the first 25 years, my dad ran and still worked in production with only 3-8 employees depending on the year. These were lean years. In that time, to keep shipping the required amount to customers and have extra banjos to take to events like NAMM, IBMA or the Walnut Valley Festival he would work about 18 hours a day, 7 days a week to get everything done in time. He is now 75 years old and bemoans not being physically able to do that anymore. I regularly remind him he does more in a day at 75 than many 30-year-olds I know!

(Greg hand-engraving inlays of one of our rare Gabriella necks, and Janet hand-polishing the details of its resonator in 1986)

When Deering began, the world still functioned on landline phones, paper checks, and in-person banking. Calling across the country cost an arm and leg; credit cards were rare to have, and computers were not a normal household or business resource.

The first documents of Deering were done on manual typewriters, and literal “cut and pasted” layouts for ads. As technology advanced, so did Deering. I recall well when we got the first computers at the shop. It was a massive deal and expense. We were lucky that my late uncle Rod was a computer whiz of the time and worked for Sony who had a large facility in San Diego. He would spend time with my folks teaching them the ins and outs of their new “high tech” computer to do basic invoicing and accounts records in the late 1980s. Floppy Discs and all!

(Janet Deering, age 36, in the Deering Banjos office 1990)

By the mid-1990s, technology had grown so fast, we invested in our very first CNC Milling machine (CNC – Computer Numerical Controlled)  and were able to complete designing and affordably launch the Goodtime Banjos in 1996. The Goodtime banjos would become the standard of quality, affordable banjos and a hallmark of our growing catalog of products. Before the turn of the Century, we had made 17,425 banjos, and since the year 2000, we have delivered 168,869 Deering banjos.

A huge component of the success of Deering Banjo Company is something that my folks have personified time and time again. Simply put, innovation in times of crisis. There have been numerous times in the last half century when they could have given up and walked away, because things got hard. And yet they persevered through everything.

Obviously, the last 5 years have been one of those times. However, 2008 stands as a defining point in their resilience, by turning to innovation to drive forward. As news came down of the economic collapse that would turn the world upside-down, my parents went against the grain, investing significantly in tooling to completely redesign our now well-established Goodtime line, as well as fan favorites like the Sierra and Boston models. Instead of waiting, they pushed forward, giving even more value to the customer, and this is the attitude that has been ingrained in all of us.

Over the last five years, our team did it again, with the Goodtime line. Faced with rising costs and uncertainty of the future of nickel plating being sustainable, we brought powder finishes for metal parts in-house to do ourselves, and perfected the process for banjos. We then upgraded our Blonde Goodtime line with new peghead art, inlays, and the US Bronze powder finish, making them even more aesthetic, durable, easier to maintain, and hypoallergenic, giving customers even more value.  

One thing I marvel at in thinking back on all the years of change and growth is that even with utilizing new innovations, they never fully took the place of the human touch and creativity to this day. We still use machines that are nearly 100 years old, as well as the latest in modern technology. And of course, so much of what we do relies on human hands to make it just right. When we CNC a neck to its rough shape today, significant hand work goes into it before and after that step to make it perfect. That is what makes each banjo special and up to our exacting standards. In the offices here at the factory, while machines and AI answering phones are the trend of the day, we have chosen not to go that route. It just isn’t us. We make a point of making sure that our customers can still call in and speak with a person during business hours to have questions answered. A lot of those phone calls turn into friendships, which is always a treat.

We have long been supporters of freedom of expression on the banjo, and that it has a home in all genres of music. We love and deeply support traditional Folk and Bluegrass; however, those are not the only homes for the banjo. One of the first examples of this was when Rock guitar legend Joe Satriani met us at the NAMM Show in the late 1980s and later got our Deluxe 6-String and 12-String banjos. During an era when Rock and Grunge music reigned, he was a trailblazer and performed with it on MTV Unplugged in 1990. Joe then took it to another level in recording with it on his The Extremist album, released in 1992. Later that year, it went Gold and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1993 Grammy Awards! This just did not happen for the banjo back then. It was a major step for the instrument, and we have always admired Joe for seeing its capability.

So, as I reflect on the journey of our first 50 years, I consider what got us here? And the one thing I keep coming back to is that we have always tried to stay true to ourselves and to our customers. We have celebrated the great times and navigated the uncertain times. We have always manufactured in the USA, and we have always looked forward to what's next. As the Great American Banjo Company, we strive to be the premier banjo destination for players of all skill levels and styles. We have welcomed any and all who want to start playing, regardless of their style of music, and we have always done our best to help them along the way.

We don't plan on changing that approach for the next 50 years, either.

Thanks for supporting us while we support the banjo world and the magic of making music.  We look forward to creating more magic as we expand; and to making great instruments for generations to come.

Jamie Deering & The Deering Banjo Family