Presenting the Deering Eagle II Aught Six Banjo! From time to time the  Deering banjo company offers us experimental banjos — banjos from their custom shop that were not ordered by shop or customer.

When Barry Hunn from Deering called and offered me these two banjos I took them in a heartbeat. An opportunity for a unique banjo without the extra expense of the Deering Custom shop — the proverbial “no- brainer”!!   While we have sold these two banjos and they are not in the ‘regular’ Deering line, this configuration is available on special order.

So — what we have here is the new Eagle 11 inlay package on what we can safely call an Eagle 11 neck. This neck is fitted to a standard, gloss finish pot with a Deering Aught Six tone ring, red maple rim and gloss finish, Zinc flange and maple resonator. The pot is entirely a standard Deering Maple-Deluxe model.

So in effect it is a Maple Deluxe model fitted with an alternate inlay package.

I have been trying to come up with a “witty” name for this banjo; contenders like “Deagle” and “Eagluxe” have been batted around the shop. But I find that Deering beat me to it and formally assigned the name “Eagle II Aught Six Ring” to the factory label inside the resonator.

So there you have it — a Deering Deluxe Banjo but fitted with the new Eagle II inlay package, and it’s a lovely looking banjo. And, you can confidently say there is (at writing) only one other banjo like it in the solar system !

— Grant MacNeill

The Deering Eagle II Aught Six banjo features the pot and resonator from the ‘Deluxe’ model, but in maple instead of mahogany. A violin-grade 3-ply maple rim is matched to a 20 – hole 06 Bronze tone ring, with a notched brass tension hoop and one piece cast zinc flange. The metal parts are nickel plated.

As you would expect from a Deering Banjo, this instrument plays very well right out of the box. We will of course perform a setup to the player’s requirements. Check out Please follow this links to see Grant MacNeill giving a tour of Banjo Setups!

Sold with its original Deering hard shell case.