Cortley 5-String Banjo

I dunno where this came from, probably japan, but I wouldn't rule out China or Korea (but I don't if Korea was in the banjo market at the time). I got it at a local pawn shop for $150. I couldn't talk the guy down. It has a wood resinator, I think mahogany from when I took
the back off. It came with a Remo Weather King head, a beautiful, but compleatly unusable rosewood bridge, and a non-geared 5th string tuner, I had to get the thing replaced as well as getting a comp bridge for it. I would venture that the wood is cheap because when i took the resonator off it has a one piece metal flange and rim. The tuners are guitar style, and they too are very cheap. the frets needed dressed and polished. It's finished in a nice brownish/cherry polyurithane.

As for the musical style, well I dig trash, so it works great for the country-punk thing I do. I do like the nech which is the perfect balance between big & extra medium. The sound is sort of plunky (I mean come on, it's a banjo), but because of the cheap rim and flange it's not as resonant as say, a Gibson from the 30s, but what is? I give her a 6 here, ive had it for a while...

I know not for the factory set up, but my tech guy made it play great. Tunes well for a banjo. As Spot says, "half my life I spend tuning this thing, and half my life I spend playing it out of tune."

I give it a big 10 on reliability. She holds up, and with the pickup, she wails through the PA.

Is there still a Cortley company?

I whish it was set up like I have now when I bought it 'cuz i wouldn't have had to shell out $50 to get it fixed. I love the crazy bird on the back, our nations symbol you know, and the dumb guitar tuners. I didn't compare it to anything cuz I was 16 when I got it and I got it because I was poor and it, bless it, was cheap. Lastly, I wish it had Earl Scruggs to play it for me.