By Miriam Raftery

December 7, 2009 (Spring Valley) – “The banjo is America’s own instrument,” said Carolina Bridges, director of public relations at Deering Banjo. True, and Deering is America’s banjo company—the only U.S. maker that handcrafts its instruments using all American-made parts, Bridges said during a tour of Deering’s Spring Valley factory at the company’s holiday open house on Saturday. “It’s like a good cake—we make it all from scratch.”

Deering’s attention to quality has attracted top names in the music world—not only in bluegrass, jazz and country music, but also star performers in rock and roll. But it all started right here in East County 34 years ago, when Greg and Gail Deering began making banjos in their garage, stringing instruments on their porch and selling them to local music stores.