I just bought a geared fifth peg and want to install it in place of my friction peg. How hard is it going to be? It is a pretty cheap banjo, a Rover i bought new for a hundred bucks to learn on. The friction peg keeps slipping and its very frustrating.
Anyway, how do I remove the old peg and install the new one?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sean

Posted - 11/04/2009 :  06:04:05          

Let Frank Ford help you:
http://frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier...gear5th.html

Dan in Minneapolis


"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing; if you can fake that, you've got it made."
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Posted - 11/04/2009 :  06:53:20  

Thanks for the input. I'll give it a try this weekend. Wish me luck.
Sean

Posted - 11/04/2009 :  07:13:20        

I agree with everything in the Frank Ford method except on seating the new geared peg.

Richie Dotson, here on BHO, has a web site that shows how to work on your banjo. http://banjoist.tripod.com/FrictionReplacement.htm

He shows to take a large wooden dowel rod and cut off a short piece. Drill a hole through the center of the short piece of dowel rod, a little larger and a little longer than the shaft on your new geared peg. This allows the piece of dowel rod to rest on the shoulder of the geared peg, and not on the shaft of the tuner, when you tap it in.

Remove the screw and button from the geared peg, and set it up straight in the prepared hole in you neck. Watch the position of the peg the string goes on, to orient it properly.

While well supporting the neck on the opposite side of the geared peg, place the dowel rod hole over the shaft, and give it a few taps with a small hammer. It should seat nicely, and you are not hammering on the shaft itself, and pushing it into the gears in the tuning peg.

"The more you know, the more you know you don't know."

Glenn

Edited by - Glenn Tate on 11/04/2009 07:14:23

Posted - 11/04/2009 :  08:16:16    

I found it to be a fairly easy job....just had to dremmel out the hole a little.

-----------------------------------------------
Have you hugged your Banjo today ?

Posted - 11/04/2009 :  10:37:36    

Sean, some years ago I imported 12 Rover banjos into NZ for resale. My supplier in the US stated that the 5th pegs should be replaced as they were inferior. They supplied the geared 5th pegs. As I already had a reamer for doing the 5th peg, I realised that the hole was too small to insert the tool. I purchased another reamer locally and using my Dremel tool, I removed a section of the tapered 'blades' so it would fit into the existing hole and enlarge it so the proper tool would fit. I realise that this is probably too much trouble for you just to do one banjo. However, you do need to enlarge the hole (if it need to be done) to get the correct tool to fit.

PLEASE NOTE!! whatever method you use to remove the wood round the hole, GO SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY. You don't want to remove more wood than you need to. You cannot put it back after it is gone.

I agree with Glenn on the insertion method. If you remove too much wood then the tapered spline on the bottom of the peg will not bite into the wood when you insert and tap it down. Hope it helps!

Wayne
New Zealand


My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
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