I also have one of these and I must say it is a very fine instrument, despite it's being made 60 years after my Gibson. ;0)

There are very high quality banjos being made today. Even the relatively inexpensive Deering GoodTime resonator banjos (around $900.00 the last I looked) I've heard have really good tone. This is a *very* hot discussion/argument in banjo circles. Are the new Stellings, Huber's, Prucha's, Cox's, Sullivan's, etc. as "good" as the Pre-War Gibson's? My real opinion is play it, if you like it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.