The Delta Snake Review: Musical Gear Review and Music Article Archive

Retrospective: 2010 Washburn Americana B10 Banjo

The 2010 Washburn Americana B10 resonator banjo was my first “higher” grade banjo, that is to say, it wasn't like my first, a Japanese 70s banjo that was actually surprisingly good for that type but still had a lot of the characteristics of a cheapie. Those Japanese banjos are often described in unflattering terms and at the center of the disrespect was the poor reputation of aluminum rims, although as I said in an early banjo essay, the rim was actually one of the few good things about those cheap banjos and are still in use today for entry level banjos.

The so-called crummy aluminum rims were surrounded by parts which are really what created the bad reputation; overly thin necks that flexed easily, cheap bridges, barely competent tuners and so on. It should be noted that although the label of “cheap Japanese banjo" was synonymous with bad quality in the 70s, Japanese companies were also starting to manufacture high quality copies of Gibson banjos, etc.

So, in terms of banjos, my next step up was a used Washburn B10, which also had an aluminum rim but decent quality parts and a good reputation. Another thing about the B10 was that the mounts for the resonator weren't so pronounced, that is to say, you could take the resonator off and play it as an open back as it didn't have big edges that could rip into your pants. That made it relatively versatile but on the whole I used it for what it was intended to be; a resonator banjo with a good projection and attack.

As far as the exact tone, I’ve always said that it's best to check out the demos on YouTube and that's not a cop out; it's just that we're past the era where a reviewer had to try to come up with adjectives that were superlative or negative to describe the tone which, when you really think about it, can you really describe a band show or guitar for that matter? Any text description would depend on the reader at least having heard the music so they would have a reference point. If you're trying to describe a banjo to someone who has never heard one, exactly how would you do that? You can describe the character, feel and tone but you can't describe how it sounds.

That being said, and you can double check this on sites that have videos of the B10 in action from players of various varying levels of skill. This banjo has what you would call a standard bluegrass tone. It’s perhaps a little mellower than, say, a Fender or Gretsch in the same price range of approximately $500 and perhaps one could say closer to the Epiphone versions.

When I say it was my first competent or first line banjo, I mean that it was the first one with a neck and hardware you didn't have to worry about. The neck didn't flex, the tuners were competent, etc. That wasn’t a given in an era where people often struggled with older used Harmony’s or like brands in the quest to get a decent inexpensive banjo.

There was another characteristic that made it a more serious instrument, which was the rim was dense and was heavy like a good resonator type. There are exceptions, like the Epiphone EB88 of the seventies, where the rim was aluminum but not cast heavily with a lot of metal. The Washburn is a denser banjo to get more volume and a tone closer to brass type rims.

I never did end up recording any music with the B10 but it has my respect because it was the first banjo where I didn't have to worry about staying in tune, bad intonation, and such, so I could seriously think about working on banjo pieces for sale on CD, MP3 and then later on, streaming. I ended up recording five banjo pieces which I'll list at the end of this essay, but I can say that all but one of the numbers was actually worked out on the Washburn, at least enough to start recording demos with it.

That may sound kind of odd but the thing about recording, I think anyone who's done any kind of recording will know this, is that if you don't have a competent banjo (or any instrument), its flaws will definitely come out on tape or digital. In other words, a lot of banjo stuff that sounds good live can sound out of tune or have notes with obviously bad intonation, etc in the studio. So one of the reasons I can recommend the Washburn is that if you want to record with it, in my opinion, you can at least do recorded demos. There are a lot of inexpensive banjos that get a lot of praise, and there is one I tried to record with which I'll review later.

Whether a banjo can always sound in tune, etc., isn't just about the materials or workmanship; a lot of it is skill and set up. A banjo like the B10 is good enough to record with, where you can start taping yourself.

My impression of the Washburn back in the early 2010 still stands today; it was and is a very decent banjo that plays in tune. I trusted it enough to at least do demos and the only reason it didn't end up among my recordings is, like I said, I decided to go towards an open back sound and it didn't quite fit there. I moved on to other brands, some of which I've reviewed here and some I haven't done yet but will get around to.

I think you can use the B10 for pretty much any type of banjo music you want but it is a good entry level or intermediate bluegrass style banjo. The fact that it has an aluminum rim is no longer here nor there, it's just a matter of whether you like the sound of the banjo, or in other words the whole package. I think we're past the old 70s or 80s idea that anything aluminum was automatically bad, etc. Brass rims may be better in a lot of subtle ways but there are drawbacks, particularly with the weight and cost.

I wouldn't have wasted time doing demos in a studio on good equipment if the Washburn hadn't been a decent sounding banjo that could stay in tune. I'd still recommend the Washburn B10 to anyone who would like to try learning the banjo.

Al Handa

Aug. 6th, 2026

Note: My five banjo cuts listed here can be found on YouTube, Spotify, etc.

Banjo Heaven

Banjo Music Box

Purple Ocean

Nigel Raga

It Never Rains On My Banjo

Washburn Americana B10 Specs

5-string resonator banjo, mahogany neck and body, gloss sunburst finish, 27.5-inch scale length, 22-fret engineered wood fingerboard, cast aluminum rim with 30 brackets, and a Remo head.

Body Style: Resonator banjo

Rim: Aluminum

Resonator & Sides: Mahogany

Head: Remo

Brackets: 30 brackets

Tension Hoop: Notched steel

Finish: Gloss sunburst

Neck & Fingerboard

Neck Material: Mahogany

Fingerboard Material: Engineered wood / tech wood

Number of Frets: 22 frets

Scale Length: 27.5 inches