Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Recording King Banjo

#1

Hey guys, My local pawn shop has a RK banjo for sale, purchased new, never played, and then pawned. The seller cant tell me what model it is. Can you guys and gals tell me what model this is from this post? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/140221341384087/?referralSurface=messenger_lightspeed_banner&referralCode=messenger_banner

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#2

Hi Mark, I am no expert, but it looks a lot like an Elite 76 as featured on the RK Website. Hearts and flowers design but the logo on the peghead looks a little different. Might be an earlier design. Maybe @AdamAsh or @Jake can be more specific.

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#3

Thanks, If it is a 76, $700 is a bargain. Going to look at it tomorrow.

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#4

Mark just had a look at Ben’s General Store and on reflection it looks more like RK-R20 SONGSTER especially the peghead design @BanjoBen has that priced at $549.99

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#5

Yeah, Archie’s 2nd post is right. It’s an R20. I bought one of those used for $200 a couple of years ago and sold it in a couple of weeks for $400.

They’re good banjos first the price, but not really a quality instrument IMHO… and definitely not worth the $700 they’re asking.

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#6

Hi @Mark_Rocka I was kinda thinking that myself. I really don’t like giving advice on instrument purchases. I just wanted to try to help identify the model .I just hope @banjojeep sees this before heading out to make a purchase

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#7

Thank you both. I had just been looking at this and believe you are correct. https://reverb.com/p/recording-king-rk-r20-songster-5-string-tone-ring-banjo?hfid=16405636&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12293041825&utm_content=campaignid=12293041825_adgroupid=116935844545_productpartitionid=1173197235341=merchantid=108084192_productid=16405636_keyword=_device=c_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=497319295369&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIncSHnrfg8AIVWG5vBB26pgY1EAQYAiABEgJIBfD_BwE

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#8

Yes, it looks like an RK-R20. Brand new, we sell those banjos for $549.99. We sell that case for $119.95 and the strap is probably worth about $30-50. Those are brand new prices, though. RK-R20s are not available right now new. I have several on backorder, but won’t likely get them for a while yet. They’ve been unavailable so long that I’m not really sure if that price will be accurate when Recording King has them available again.

We’re supposed to be getting some RK-R36s sometime in the next month or so at the store. They’re a whole lot more banjo for $1,149.99, if you would be interested in one of those.

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