Yellow Springs newcomer Geoff Hohwald operates the The Banjo Warehouse out of his village home. Hohwald has hundreds of banjos for sale and offers one-on-one banjo instruction for pickers and pluckers of all ages and abilities. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Pick a banjo, any banjo
- Published: June 11, 2025
When 77-year-old Geoff Hohwald moved to Yellow Springs from Georgia last year to be closer to family, he brought with him a few banjos.
Well, maybe not a few banjos; rather, a lot of banjos — hundreds of banjos.
Hohwald’s humble ranch home, just a few blocks from downtown Yellow Springs, is overflowing with pre-World War II Gibsons, vintage Japanese hard shells, Stellings, Recording Kings, Hubers, Gold Tones, open-backs, beginners and many, many more.
Hohwald’s new village home is now the headquarters for The Banjo Warehouse, an online business he’s run since 2017, that specializes in the sale of used and vintage banjos.
A lifelong plucker, picker and purveyor of strings, Hohwald estimates he has more banjos under one roof than anywhere else on the planet. Though the News was unable to verify this claim, Hohwald’s jam-packed walls, shelves and closets were convincing enough. Hohwald’s website, http://www.banjowarehouse.com, likewise claims his selection is “the best in the world.”
Speaking with the News earlier last month, Hohwald said he’s happy to bring his business to Yellow Springs. He invites any and all pluckers — young or old, green-horned or well-seasoned — to get in touch, and pick a banjo, any banjo.
“Give me a call, make an appointment and see for yourself,” Hohwald said with a smile.
Beyond sales, Hohwald also offers one-on-one banjo instruction out of his domesticized warehouse. Since the 1970s, and across a number of states, Hohwald has taught the “Scruggs style” of banjo playing — a three-finger picking style popularized by the late American bluegrass player Earl Scruggs. Hohwald’s always looking for more students, he said.
While he charges $50 an hour for continued lessons he described as “fairly demanding,” Hohwald offers a free diagnostic lesson — “Just to see where you are,” he said — and on his other website, geoffhohwald.com, he offers seven weeks of free video lessons for any would-be banjo ramblers and rovers.
Like the Appalachian foothills, Hohwald’s storied career in music has rolled on and on.
He first picked up a banjo in 1963, and cut his teeth on the instrument with the help of Robbie Robinson and John Hickman — the latter of whom is best known for playing soundtracks for “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
Some years later, Hohwald would continue brushing against musical fame: He played with Sandy Rothman and Frank Wakefield — both of whom were in orbit of The Grateful Dead — and Howard Aldridge, who played banjo with Bill Monroe, oft called the “Father of Bluegrass.”
“Wherever I would go, I found myself running into extraordinary musicians,” Hohwald said.
In the late ’70s, Hohwald moved down south and started teaching banjo. Around that time, he noticed a woeful lack of published instructional materials on how to play his instrument. There were plenty for guitar, but as Hohwald said, learning banjo was steeped in what he called the folksy tradition of “monkey see, monkey do.”
“So what did I do? I made a system,” Hohwald said.
That system first manifested itself in “Banjo Primer,” a beginner-level instruction book that, alone, has sold over 200,000 copies since its publication in 1982. Since then, Hohwald has authored over a dozen other instructional books and multimedia materials, selling several million books over the decades.
Instruction book sales have waxed and waned over the years; with the outlet chain Guitar Center squeezing out independently owned music stores, Hohwald mostly sells his works online these days. According to him, his sales are down to 30% of what they were 15 years ago — though, there will be occasional spikes, like during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when “everyone wanted to learn banjo all of the sudden,” Hohwald said.
Ever the banjo educator, Hohwald’s instruction goes far beyond the pages of his booklets, and even outside his home-turned-warehouse where he conducts lessons. Last month, he sponsored a banjo clinic at the Clifton Opera House that brought together around 50 pickers. Before moving to Yellow Springs, he would occasionally host weekend-long banjo camps and retreats out of his home in Georgia. Hohwald said he has plans to do something similar in the future here in Yellow Springs.
Hohwald believes playing banjo — whether playing bluegrass, folk, old time, Irish or traditional — can bring a great deal of positivity to one’s life. For him, it’s a way to unwind and relax.
“These patterns and repetitions can be calming,” he said. “Sometimes, it can take the weight of the world off your shoulders.”
To learn more about Hohwald’s banjo instruction and sales, visit his websites http://www.geoffhohwald.com and http://www.banjowarehouse.com. He can be reached at 404-218-8580.
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