Deering, "The Great American Banjo Company". Deering banjos have been proudly made in the USA for more than 30 years. The Deering factory, located in Southern California, produces more banjos than any in North America.

Greg Deering grew up in San Diego, California. In 1968, while going to college at San Diego State, he became part of a group of like-minded individuals who called themselves The American Dream. This group included a young Bob Taylor, Kurt Listug, Sam Radding, and customer, Geoff Stelling, and friend, James Goodall. San Diego fostered many craftsmen who went on to become some of the top acoustic instrument makers in the world. Everyone shared the qualities of perseverance, dedication to a goal, fortitude, love of crafting acoustic instruments, and just good old American hard work. Participation in "The American Dream" gave Greg his repair experience and proved his banjo building skill as he made his first handmade Deering banjo.
Greg married Janet in 1974, having known her since she was 14 through their church. A late night discussion after youth group formed a friendship and special bond; having a common goal to own a family business. The newly weds went into business, partnering briefly with Geoff Stelling who is stationed in San Diego in the Navy in 1975. To resolve partnership challenges, they formed the Deering Banjo Company, making 600 of the early Stelling Banjos as subcontractors, while training a crew of 12 men including Larry and Kim Breedlove. When Geoff Stelling hired the crew they had trained and cancelled their contract, the young couple was compelled to branch out on their own to produce Deering Banjos in 1977. Do you remember what it was like to be young and have a dream? Youth is given to all for a reason... You have the strength to put in long hours, the mental tenacity to figure out the hardest things and make them work, and you just "find a way" to pull it all together. Janet and Greg did this by cutting necks in the garage of their home, sanding banjo parts on the back porch, packaging product in the living room, driving banjos personally to the stores in a very old, but reliable truck, and raising chickens to help keep food on the table for themselves and their young family. Son Jeremiah was born in 1974 and daughter Jamie, born in 1978, was at her first NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers) Trade Show in Anaheim, CA at the tender age of 4 weeks.

The growth of the company is chronicled in the models they have created. The first to be created were the Basic, Intermediate, and the Deluxe, introduced at the 1978 Chicago NAMM Show. What were the serial numbers of these first banjos you ask? Well, they all started out as hash marks on their workbench at home! Janet eventually created a system of numbers to give customers an idea of where their banjo fit into the picture of a company that would one day be called "The Great American Banjo Company".