I do like the more old time deeper sound. I have a Deering Goodtime Americana Artisan that has a 12" rim. That being said I say you're looking for an open back banjo. So I'd approach purchasing a banjo as a separate entity. I played banjo before I took up mandolin). (I play both, with clawhammer being my current preference. Secondly please know that the mandolin and banjo are completely different instruments. Clawgrass, well that's a style that I'm not so sure how they play it! Clawhammer players brush the strings with the back of their middle finger and use the drop thumb on the fifth string. Three finger Scruggs style picker typically play resonator banjos and use metal finger picks. Kind of a hybrid between clawhammer and three finger Scruggs style. She plays a more traditional clawhammer style while he plays IMHO whats now called clawgrass. Just watched some YT videos and he's very good! There is a nice video of him and Kathy Fink playing together. Hi Mike, just some thoughts about your post. OME is hard to beat, and you can always resale with little loss by buying used. If you have the $, i would jump on the Wizard if Shaun still has it. There is an Atlas for sale on the BHO for around $1400, thats a great price. I do know Avenue Guitars is getting a shortscale 12" Atlas soon, not sure when exactly. The Atlas and Atlantis are excellent open back models, very comfortable, typcially around 5 lbs, allow a one bolt adjustment to change the string action on the neck, offer a lot of adjustability to achieve the tone you want, excellent fretwork, excellent tone. If you want an easy to adjust on the fly neck angle, TR, or tone change, head towards a Nechville. I love highly ornate elaborate old historical inlays. I'm not into bling or ornate instruments.other than on banjos, then i'm wide open and bring it on. You can get into a Pisgah for around $1500 newish. I don't always like the choice of wood or inlay, but thats a personal matter. Owned Pisgah before and i really like the playability, tone, and quality of build. Tupelos typically come in 12" and around $2000. The Ome Tupelo is a nice banjo to learn on as well, think of it as a Wizard with less brackets, less weight, and a slightly different tone(Tom Collins uses a Tupelo a lot, along with other Omes). The Wizard will have a thicker richer tone of course. You can play fingerstyle or clawhammer on either of these just fine. changing bridge weights can make a difference as well, along with string gauges. That is a higher tier banjo, typically around 6 lbs, plays and sounds excellent, well built with high quality pretty wood, 1 3/8" nut width, 25.5" scale, based on how tight you draw the head tension you can have a bright or more bassy instrument.
If its still available, Shaun Garrity( Sgarrity here on the cafe), did have an OME Wizard for around $1750 or so. I especially like the Deering Vega Senator, around mid $2000 but there are two used ones at the BHO and may be here in the classifieds, $1650 higher dollar Deerings that i think are worth investigating would be the Vega line. You can learn a lot on one of these, then go have hands on with more expensive makes and figure out what might work better. The only thing is the scale on these are 26+". This line tends to have good tone as well, light in weight(around 5 lbs), very good wood, dry slick necks.
These Goodtime line instruments tend to have excellent setups from the factory, very good to excellent fretwork, good cut nut slots, a lot of owner info on the Deering site(how to tighten the head, how to change the head. With banjos, especially open back, i personally feel you can get a fine instrument that will take you a long way, for a couple hundred dollars(around $500)-i am thinking of the Deering Americana(12" pot).
neck sizes/shapes, scale lengths, tonerings, it can be a bit overwhelming. As in everything, there's a lot to choose from and learn.