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Jim Creech
06-10-2014, 1:59 PM
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A customer brought me some parts a while ago and wanted a functional banjo that also looked decent. The parts consisted of an older Gibson neck, an imitation 5 Star tone ring, a 3 ply maple pot that I think came out of a kit. a laminated mahogany resonator in need of some new veneer. a flange (not shown) and a bag on hooks, nuts, imported tailpiece, armrest and machine heads. The tone ring was just about .010 too small for the pot and the neck was nowhere close to fitting the pot. The relief in the resonator was entirely too large for the neck heel and the brown streaks visible on the neck was paint that the owner had started to strip. The back of the resonator also had some minor damage to the veneer at the edge that doesn't show in the photo.
This should be fun!:confused:

The first order of business was to plug the gaping hole in the resonator to facilitate fitting the neck and applying new veneer.

Julie Moriarty
06-10-2014, 3:24 PM
"Frankenbanjo", looks like it's aptly named. Nice job on the repair work so far. And I agree, it does look like it's going to be fun. :)

Jim Creech
06-11-2014, 1:53 PM
Actually Julie it is already done. I have just been remiss in posting. Unfortunately my camera was not always available so I don't have as many pics as I would like. The attached pics show veneering the resonator sides and then the finished product. To hide the resonator veneer damage on the back I just did a basic brown burst and per the owners request did the same on the neck. In my parts bin I found a Gibson armrest and a Presto tail piece which the owner just had to have.
So this is it. My customer is happy and now has a relatively decent looking and playing banjo. Sounds pretty good too!2910842910852910862910872910882910892910902910 91

Julie Moriarty
06-12-2014, 8:21 AM
Thank you for the pictures Jim! I really enjoy seeing the work of others, especially when it's high quality. There's a joy in seeing an instrument come back to life as a beautiful swan.

george wilson
06-12-2014, 8:59 AM
That looks like a very nice job!!

I made quite a few banjos back in the 60's. I was a certified Gibson repair person,and could buy the metal parts wholesale at the time. Today,I hear they will sue you if you copy their plastic truss rod cover!!

If you cut away that 3rd foot on the bridge,the banjo will sound MARKEDLY better. If you have a spare bridge,try it. Also,if the bridge is as light as possible(with NO ebony insert),it will sound even better. Quite a bit better.

I hope you try these tips,because you can really hear the difference in tone. I'd sand the bridge down as thin as it can stand the pressure of the strings. Weight in the bridge is a very sensitive tone killer in banjos.

I had a guy bring me a Gibson Mastertone banjo that sounded bad. He thought the banjo was just no good. It had a SMALL rosewood bridge he had made and put on it,to fancy it up. Though quite small,the bridge weighed more than a maple one. As soon as I changed the bridge to a 2 footed maple bridge,the banjo sounded just fine. If I had been unscrupulous, I could have bought that banjo cheap. As it was,I didn't even charge him for changing the bridge.

Down in North Carolina,I think there was more superstition about banjo tone than any other instrument. Some swore that a gold plated tone ring sounded better. They had no idea how thin that plating was!! Some swore that an OLD banjo sounded better. It went on and on. It was really tiresome dealing with some of those guys.

Grandpa Jones had one of my necks on his Vega banjo. I had not signed it,and how he ended up with it,who knows? I never got around to telling him that I made the neck. I had traded it off to someone years earlier. The guy I made it for didn't like it because it didn't look just like a Gibson neck. It was made of Brazilian rosewood,with German silver inlays,and was quite distinctive,and a LOT nicer than a Gibson neck. Jones played a Vega,and was not into the Gibson mythology.

Jim Creech
06-12-2014, 12:45 PM
Thanks guys! Compliments are always appreciated.
Julie, I don't know if I would call a banjo a beautiful swan but then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I for one, love the sound of bagpipes but I daresay a lot of people are going to cringe over that. Hope I don't start a conflict!
George, I was at one time a certified Martin repair person and dealer. I was also a dealer for Gibson acoustics, Takamine, Ovation, Peavey and a few others. I talked to the Gibson rep about repairs but they wanted me to jump through too many hoops at the time and the few Gibsons I was seeing were no longer under warranty or not the orig owner anyway.
The bridge shown in the pics came with the banjo. All I did was clean it up a little. My policy is for the owners to play the instrument for a week or two then return it if they want anything tweaked or redone which there is no charge for unless it is outside of the scope of the original repair. I know the owner of this one and I can guarantee it will be back. He likes to tinker with instruments trying to achieve what he perceives as "perfect playability" and "Perfect tone". He invariably does more harm than good but is a good customer and refers a lot of work to me. When this comes back with a tone issue I will loose that bridge and replace accordingly. (He is not aware that bridges can be modified).