Hi Todd. Banjo is a great instrument, I've owned two (edit: I've owned more than two). It's also a weird one for a guitar player since there's the overseas made entry level stuff, and from there it jumps right up to expensive crafted banjos. There's not a lot of middle ground which will vex you as a guitar player. (Another edit: I think this advice is out of date, as I wrote this bit, I looked up a bunch of good middle range instruments.)
I don't personally recommend an open back banjo, mainly because if you want that sound you can take the resonator off your banjo and get pretty close. The reverse isn't true, though, you can't add a resonator to an open back banjo.
That being said, though, I don't know that I would think an open back banjo would record better. You'd never put a microphone dead in front of a banjo any more than you would stick a microphone directly at an acoustic guitar, even so, though, the resonator on the banjo focuses the sound forward which really should make it easier to get a good sound. I'm kind of shaky on this, though- haven't recorded a lot of banjo. So be a little skeptical of this advice.
But you very much might want to mellow the sound down, that's actually a big part of the banjo. Easier and better ways to do it than commit to an open banjo, I'd feel.
Most people don't know this, but the banjo is a very, very versatile instrument and one of the ways it gets there is by prominent use of mutes. There's a
lot of different kinds of mutes and it's also common to find
violin mutes. The violin mutes sometimes are just wooden "combs" and you can put them on and off quickly.
There's a whole world to explore there. Most people think of the banjo as some loud, metallic instrument spewing notes out at incredible speed, but when you put mutes on there and play slow arpeggios it sounds sad and wonderful.
You can also change the tone a lot by using different fingerpicks or no fingerpicks. My overall point is that the modern five string resonator banjo is the end result of a
lot of banjo evolution over hundreds of years, and while it's not as specialized as some banjos are- check out this
nylon strung open back banjo- it's probably the best place to start and can reasonably cover most styles at least up until a point.
Oh: do not be tempted to get one of those six string banjos that are supposed to be for guitar players. You're only cheating yourself. The banjo is tuned to a chord and you move in and out of other keys by use of capos- more on that in a second- and by tuning the banjo sometimes. You want this- the finger rolls take a lot of work and practice and you want to keep them consistent if you can. So it's tuned to open G, you want to play in B, cool. Capo up a bit and keep doing the same thing you do with your right hand.
You throw all the things that make the banjo a unique world in and of itself right out the window if you try and force it to be a guitar. I feel you know this but someone else might not.
When you look into banjos there's a lot of choices to make, there's the mahogany vs maple that you are already familiar with, traditionally the banjo has had a flat fingerboard but now you see people using radius there, and then there are tone rings, which is a big subject and I can't address it well.
But, make sure you get one. They don't all have them, that's an expensive part of the banjo. The
Deering Boston doesn't, that's Deering's attempt to make a great sounding banjo otherwise. You might be attracted to the Deering Goodtimes- I've owned two- and for the most part, they don't have tone rings although they later introduced the
Goodtime Special that does have one.
I think they are only OK instruments, though.
So, what should you buy? Well, historically, Gibson has always been the leading light with banjos, but not all of their banjos are great. The "Mastertone" is kind of their legendary banjo but there are a lot of counterfeit ones out there. You can read about
them here. But if you want something that says "Mastertone", you'll be spending.
Gibson also made an "RB" line- "regular banjo"- and those varied wildly in quality over the years as Gibson tried to hit various price points. I don't know that I would recommend those, although some years seemed like they would be pretty good.
Deering of course is great- I kind of consider them the Taylor guitars of the banjo world, they are innovative, very good, and didn't feel all that bound to tradition.
Which will bring us to the
Sierra. I own one from before it had the "Sierra" name and was just called the Standard. As Deering scaled up their production the Sierra became more elaborate looking, but the concept is always the same, a professional grade banjo at an affordable price- "affordable" being relative, but used you can find them at decent prices.
It would be kind of like the D-18- if someone asked if they should buy that, you'd say sure, you might want something else down the road but if you don't, that D-18 will do everything you need a guitar to do.
What else is out there- well, Gold Tone makes a good banjo at overseas price points, personally there's no way I would buy an instrument so tied in with American culture like the banjo that is made in Chinese factories. Something seems very wrong there. You may feel otherwise and they are good banjos. You'll get a good tone ring, for instance, at a price point where Deering does not offer tone rings.
Gold Tone
also offers high end models. You are probably familiar with the Recording King brand and they are same as they are in the guitar world,
good instruments.
Nechville makes great banjos, they feel even less of a need to stick to tradition than Deering does. For instance on this
Athena they use guitar tuners instead of banjo tuners. Don't be fooled, though, there's a reason guitar and banjo tuners aren't the same. Banjo tuners might seem sloppy since they have very low tuning ratios compared to the 18:1 you see guitars tuners having now, but like I say tuning the banjo to fit songs during a performance is common so you need those tuners to work
quick.
Anyway, I've maybe gone through my spiel, let me know if you have any questions. There's a lot to take in. Don't take me as an expert! Some of this is just my opinion over my own little banjo journey.
You'll find experts
here, though.