Vega 1917 Regent 5 String Banjo #37811 - Used  From Deering

Welcome to the wonderful online world of Deering Banjos where we invite you to check out our full range of American-made banjos including the Deering, Vega, Tenbrooks, and Goodtime banjos. 

Our banjos are built by Janet and me and our team of dedicated banjo specialists right here in our Spring Valley, California facility, just 10 miles East of downtown San Diego.

We focus only on making banjos in our factory so that all of our staff’s 342 years of combined banjo-building expertise is directed toward making the highest quality banjos in all price ranges and providing the best banjos in the world.

It is a great honor for us to share the joy our staff and I have in making banjos.  Over the past 50 years, we have made more than 180,000 banjos and every one of them has been crafted with special attention.

We are a family-run business, and we regard our craftsmen, suppliers, dealers, and especially our customers as part of the Deering family. Our focus and passion is to create great banjos that enable you as an artist to enjoy expressing yourself and your music. 

We look forward to building your special banjo.

- Janet, Greg and Jamie Deering

Greg Deering began learning woodworking from his father at the age of two by watching him build model airplanes. Growing up in San Diego, he received his first tools and tool box which he had carefully laid out in his wagon on his third birthday. Many of these tools he still has today. That is how important this was to him. It was a career in the making.

At the age of 13, Greg purchased his first banjo by investing pay from his paper route into a used banjo. He learned to play Kingston Trio songs on his banjo with his best friend Tom playing guitar.

Janet Deering grew up with her own creative side. In High School she worked as a seamstress at a local San Diego boutique dress shop. She knew from a young age that she wanted a family business making something.

Greg made his first banjo as an industrial arts major at San Diego State College. In 1970, at 19 years of age he joined other enterprising young college students at the American Dream Co-Op and began doing instrument repairs and building banjos. This co-op would become the birth place of at least four now world-renowned instrument manufacturers - a true tribute to the concept of the American dream!

The American dream became the theme of Greg and Janet's life when they got married in 1974, had their son and started the Deering Banjo Company a year later in 1975 as a family business. Together they not only raised two children but built, piece by piece, the Deering banjo factory.

Today, 50 years later, the Deering Banjo Company has seen many a milestone including the launch of the Goodtime Series in 1997, the relocation to a new 18,000 sq.ft. premises in 2001 and the launch of the Eagle II in 2009, a breakthrough in banjo tone with the development of the new Twenty-Ten™ tone ring.

In December of 2019, Jamie Deering, Janet and Greg's daughter, took the helm of Deering Banjos as the CEO. This was the position held by her mother for many years prior. Jamie grew up sweeping the shop in elementary school, helping in production and at festivals and trade shows with sales and marketing throughout High School. She has worked in all aspects of the company and is ready for the adventure of carrying on the dream. Greg and Janet are still very much involved as well. 

In the company's young 50 year life, Deering has delivered the finest hand-built American instruments to over 180,000 happy musicians and counting… one banjo at a time.