I hate that I have to make this post, but unfortunately I can't recommend Kyle Van meter for the commission of a custom Dobson reproduction banjo. Back in January of 2025 I had purchased an antique Dobson from him, however it arrived damaged due to shipping. He graciously took the banjo back however I elected to have him keep the money as a down towards a custom reproduction build. Between January 2025 and now I've had one phone call conversation with him, and a couple of text exchanges. I understand life can get busy, and I am pretty patient, however leaving me radio silent with no updates or projected completion estimates was not confidence inspiring. I sent a refund request via the method I had paid, however I've received crickets. Receipts are attached, and I hope the best for him. I posted the receipts with the screenshots and conversations over on the old time banjo Facebook page.
Edited by - Texasbanjo on 07/12/2026 14:06:07
Don't know what happened, but he hasn't posted on his FB page or website in months. Last post on FB was Nov 2025. I purchased an original Dobson from him a few years back and was interested in a repo as well. Hope he's ok.
I'm sorry to hear that, I sadly had a similar experience earlier this year.
I had found him through the forum and was interested in getting a custom Dobson. Since his Square storefront was active I figured that meant he was taking orders and ended up putting down a deposit. But after not hearing anything for days, seeing that he was posting on Facebook (at least around that time), getting no response to my attempts to contact him and verify the deposit, and later finding a recent-ish thread where someone mentioned not getting a response on a custom part order from the site...I did a chargeback and got the deposit refunded.
I do want to be clear that looking back, I definitely should have tried to get in contact with him first to talk about the build and not assumed that an active Square storefront meant he was taking deposits/orders. I genuinely hope he's doing alright, but seeing this thread I thought I would throw my experience out there so people know his website appears to be a ghost ship right now.
Yeah, it's a really bummer. I keep trying to get ahold of him, but I suspect I'll have to count my 1k as a loss.
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