Product Announcements

Most folks in bluegrass know Anthony Howell as the talented young banjo picker with Williamson Branch, where he is also called upon to play guitar and mandolin on occasion. But you may not know that he is also a gifted

Since the earliest days of bluegrass music, National brand picks have been used by banjo and reso-guitar artists. Endorsements from Earl Scruggs in his 1968 book, Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo, made National finger and thumb picks de

Losing track of your picks can be maddening when the urge to play or practice hits, especially for new banjo or guitar pickers who haven't developed routines to manage them. And if you have cats in your house, forget about

Richie Dotson, noted luthier and banjo craftsman with Acoustic Box, near Richmond, VA, has introduced a set of handcrafted, vintage-style fingerpicks designed to be perfect reproductions of the highly prized National fingerpicks made prior to World War II. Small batch

Diligent readers of Bluegrass Today will recognize the name Troy Johnson, one half of Nebraska's Banjo Loco, who we profiled here some years back. Along with Matt Manning, the two perform on electrified banjo family instruments, with Johnson holding down

When you're a legendary banjo player and have accumulated a whole room full of spare banjo parts over the years, what do you do? Well, if you're Sonny Osborne, you fool around and put them together until you have a

After spending a decade defunct, the "Mastertone" banjo is back, and it's no longer a Gibson. Wayne Rogers of Gold Tone Music Group has trademarked "Mastertone," and released a new line of offshore made instruments bearing the name.  This first came

The Hal Leonard music publishing company has announced the imminent release of a new book of Earl Scruggs banjo transcriptions. Titled The Earl Scruggs Banjo Songbook, it will offer tablature for 84 classic Scruggs solos taken from both recordings and live

Pluck It Music Brand is a new entry in the casual clothing and merchandise line, offering a variety of bluegrass-themed items with a focus on the instruments used to make the music. The company is the brainchild of Matthew Munsey, mandolinist,

SonoTone, the boutique guitar string company who specializes in high quality strings for vintage guitars, has introduced a new line. Their Concert series strings for acoustic guitar use a premium brass wrap which they find allows users to reproduce the the bright