From Deering.com:

A premium quality, world class banjo that is known around the world for its crisp tone - The Calico is exceptionally dynamic for both powerful sound and instantaneous response; providing a great tool for all styles of music. Deering has tapered the inside of the resonator walls for added projection of tone, and they also add the feature of glued in frets. Each fret is fitted to the fingerboard and glued in place so that in the future when the frets are worn out, they can be heated up and the glue will release without chipping the fingerboard.

The Neck:
• Curly Maple with a Honey Stain
• Natural Ebony Fingerboard
• 22 Glued In Nickel Silver Frets
• Mother of Pearl Scroll Inlays
• Ivoroid Bound Fingerboard
• Multi-color Neck Purfling Trim
• Adjustable Truss Rod
• Deering Planetary Tuners
• Deering Geared 5th String Tuner
• Bound Neck and Peghead
• Slender, Comfortable Deering Neck Shape
• High Gloss Finish

The Pot:
• Deering -06- Bell Bronze Tone Ring (mine was built in 1997;
  it has the Bell Bronze Tone Ring, but it's not the -06-)
• Deering Premium Violin Grade 3-ply Maple Rim
• Deering Brass Notched Tension Hoop
• 11" Top Frosted Medium Crown Head
• 24 Round Hooks with ¼” Hex Nuts
• One Piece Nickel Plated Zinc Flange
• 5/8” Deering Maple/Ebony Bridge
• Deering True Tone Tailpiece
• Satin Finish

Resonator:
• Curly Maple
• Coral Snake Wood Purfling Trim
• Ivoroid Binding
• Shallow Depth for Quick Response
• The Resonator Sides are Specially Tapered on the Inside for Projection of Tone
• High Gloss Finish

Tone:
With a brighter tone than mahogany, maple provides a beautiful bass response and great highs. The banjo plays string to string and up the neck at a consistent clarity and excellent volume so it is easily heard amongst a band.

Dimensions:
• Neck Width at the Nut 1 1/4"
• Scale Length Nut to Bridge 26 1/4"
• Resonator diameter 13 7/8"
• Overall Instrument Length 38"
• Weight Approx. 11 lbs

“ The Calico is special to me because it was the next model we developed after we had the Deluxe and Maple Blossom out for a while and actually we were shooting for a certain price range - the next model up from the Maple Blossom. The inlay pattern I had actually designed was the G.D.L. but it was too fancy for that price range. So I simplified it a little bit and instead of abalone binding we put the wood purfling on the edge of the binding of the fingerboard and the resonator. I really liked the red and yellow coral snake trim and at the time I was the only one in the world using it. The supplier in Germany that made it said that I was the only one buying it, he said it had been years since anyone wanted it, so he kept making it. It’s just really beautiful. The Calico has ivoroid binding so it has that vintage look.

“ And another thing we do on the Calico is we bind the peghead, binding a fiddle peghead is a really tedious job. The amount of work we put into the binding, the peghead, the inlays, the cost of all the Mother of Pearl, and the purfling makes it an elaborate work of art. It’s just a beautiful banjo. The gentleman in Germany has since passed away and a lot of that heritage was lost but we are really fortunate to have Michael Gurian who is a premium guitar builder and has taken up the gauntlet of making fancy purflings for all the luthiers all over the world. He has been the only one besides the gentleman from Germany that could duplicate the old coral snake purfling.

“ The other thing we do on the Calico that makes it different is the inside walls of the resonator are tapered a little bit. At this price point we begin to add the feature of tapered resonator sidewalls. What that does is there are a few frequencies in the banjo range that can bounce around a little bit inside the resonator. And if you taper those walls there is less parallelism, and less fixed distance. It tends to break up those sound waves that would normally bounce around inside the resonator and shoot them out of the banjo. It is a fairly subtle difference, some people can hear it really well and other people don’t notice it, but it gives that banjo a little more clarity and a little more power. So all of our banjos from the Calico all the way on up the line come standard with tapered wall resonators.”

Greg Deering