Overall Comments

I recently had an old Ome Juggernaut refretted and the nut reslotted for wider string spacing by John Boulding. As was typical of that day, the original frets terminated at the inner edge of the binding, reducing the effective fretboard width. I wanted smaller fretwire and the frets extended over the binding. I had gotten a price from a local luthier but it was high and he wanted to plane the fretboard as part of the job. With all the fancy inlays on a Juggernaut, I wasn’t comfortable with that idea.

As it turns out, John and I are both also Dobro players, and planned on attending the annual Gathering of Resonateurs in Wilkesboro NC, near his home in Mt. Airy. John volunteered to pick up and deliver the banjo in Wilkesboro, saving us trips to his shop. He completed the refret, finishing the fret ends for maximum useable surface, and salvaged the original nut, allowing it to be shimmed and reslotted. Ome’s design required removal of the fifth string nut to level the new fifth fret, but it had been epoxied in. This took extra time but John was able to remove and salvage it with no damage. All of the work was completed overnight at a very reasonable price, and the banjo was delivered the next day. By the way, John is a fine Dobro player as well as banjo player.

Overall Rating

10