i have an old 30s made tenor and the action is too high for comfort or accuracy (at times). i have a shim between the neck and rim and that helped the action a little but it's still pretty darn high. will these old necks take a big shim? i'm really kind of scared to put more of a shim in because i'm afraid the dowel or the heel will break. i was wondering if it was any remote sort of good idea to drill a different hole in the rim closer to the head for the screw that holds the dowel in place (to change the neck angle).
am i totally offbase or does anyone have a different idea for me?
Are you talking about the banjo shown in one of your postings. A banjo with maybe 2 dowel sticks - a fixed one attached to/at the rim underside and one prolonging the neck?
IŽve seen many strange banjos in my time - but never a banjo like this.
The neck heel has no rim contact at the bottom - so forget about neck/rim shimming. This makes no sense.
Are you sure, that this is a 30s banjo - somehow it looks more like an early asian postwar banjo with a plastic moulded rim.
Please tell/show us more about this banjo - I/weŽll then try helping you with some advices.
hi polle- i'm pretty sure it's a 30s tenor, not completely though. i'm almost sure it was made by slingerland or at least in the same factory as theirs. it's got one dowel in it but the flange is one big piece of metal that goes between the rim and the resonator like in that picture. it's got the old presto tailpiece, the grover pat. tuners that look to me to be from the 30s.
polle- i found a link to an example of the slingerland flange i have (this is on a 5 string and mine is a tenor but the rim, dowel and flange are the same. actually everything is the same pretty much of that banjo and my tenor):
it's a 5/8 Farquhar. i guess i'll try a 1/2 inch? not too much difference but i guess it might help.
I think there's a huge difference. But I've been called picky all my life too!!!
By the way, what is that inscribed in the peghead?
Anthony Herner --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You have to practice even to be lousy -- Jack Benny
I wouldn't be afraid to move the tail end of the dowel stick maybe 1/4" to 1/2" toward the stretcher band, and reattaching. I've seen that trick used on some old open back 5-strings with good results. Tenors sure play easier with correct action. The little hole you make shouldn't detract from the value of the instrument. I have a couple of those Slingerlands, and once set up they play real nice.
i looked in all of my cases and found a really old 1/2 inch tenor bridge in one of them and put it on. whaddya know, it did make a difference. i will keep that on there for a while and see how that does for me. it's still a little high but definitely better.
OK - now I do understand the construction - IŽve never seen this model before.
The major problem is, that the bottom of the heel does not have contact with the rim - this way only the dowel stick holds the neck in position. Shimming is almost senseless.
The only way increasing the neck/pot angle in order to obtain a nice action and the possibility for using a high bridge is moving the dowel end up.
Some banjos - f.ex. some Paramount models - have a dowel end adjuster. Installing a similar devise on your banjo seems to be a good idea.
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tenor setup question
Posted - 10/09/2009 : 06:08:19
