Banjo Newsletter Review of Gold Tone's White Ladye Openback Banjo
From the Banjo Newsletter, January 2001
Originally producing a travel banjo, the product line has grown enormously, and seven workers now produce around 100 banjos of all types per month. Striving to produce banjos with "excellent tone and playability" in the $300-1000 dollar retail price range, the banjos are constructed in their Florida shop using many imported parts to help keep costs down.
I was struck by the appearance of the White Ladye WL-250 …The straight grain maple neck, with laid-up heel and earwood, is finished in a glossy brown mahogany urethane that matches the stained maple rim. While the review model has a slightly different fingerboard, the standard White Ladye model features ebony fingerboard, white ivoroid binding, cloud design inlays, and flame maple peghead overlay. The optional frailing scoop proved to be an enjoyable and useful addition for playing over the neck.
At the string nut, the Gold Tone fingerboard is the narrowest of the group by a small amount, but didn't feel cramped. This banjo has the lowest action of all at the 12th fret, just 3/32". Demonstrating the accuracy of construction, there is no buzzing whatsoever. Should minor adjustment ever be needed, a two-way adjustable truss rod in the neck has access by a cover on the peghead.
By a small margin, the 9/16" thick multi-ply maple rim is the deepest of the group-part of the effort to achieve the desired tone. Another part of this effort is the White Ladye tone ring, which offers a wide range of sound, depending on setup. This particular instrument is geared towards a very plunky old-time sound far different from the Bart Reiter banjo I tested that also the White Ladye tone ring.
The white ivoroid binding on the outside lower edge of the rim and the maple rim cap finish the banjo off nicely. The model tested has a No Knot tailpiece, but an adjustable Price licensed tailpiece is also available. The No Knot is appropriate for an old-time sound and appearance, but the Price would allow more tonal range. A notched tension hoop, 24 hooks with shoe-brackets and ¼" nuts, plus armrest are standard. This is the only instrument reviewed that come with two coordinator rods. Coordinator rods provide the easiest way of making minor adjustments in action, and two rods offer the greatest flexibility.
The WL-250 model tested features the optional Gold Tone pre-mounted 11" skinhead. Having had frustrating experiences with skinheads years ago, I was interested to see what improvements Wayne had brought to the technology. I happily found there was very little day-to-day change in the tension of the GTS head. In the course of a month or so I did tighten the brackets about a one-half turn to take up a bit of slack, but I never had to adjust for weather. A skin head does offer a different tonal quality than does plastic, and the GTS skin head does a good job of combining some current technology with a traditional material. Wayne sent along a copy of the installation instructions for the head, and it looked like a 30-minute job that anyone could do as a upgrade to an existing banjo with 11" pot.
Gold Tone White Lady: "hollow, tubby, deep, haunting, mellow, soothing, more minstrel sounding"; "muffled sound-somewhat like old S.S. Stewarts I've played, primitive"; "the way it should sound" [two people]; "Tubby. Would guess it's the Tubaphone ring [not!]"; "Woody mountainy sound, less clarity, quite pleasing sound"; "old-timey sound, but still not too muddy."
The Gold Tone neck was immediately comfortable, and some other players who tried it echoed that impression. Two said it had the best action of the group. For players expecting low action, that would make sense…Personal taste and playing style has a great deal to do with selecting the "right" instrument. For example, in a group of people who heard the instruments in person, two said of the Gold Tone, "that's the way it's supposed to sound."