I have a beautiful 1980 Bellflower. My action up the neck is a bit high and I don't know why. My action at fret 5 is 3/32. At fret 12 my action is 5/32. At fret 22 my action is 6/32. (Fret 12 and 22 are both a 1/32 higher than Stelling specs) The bow in my neck at fret 7 is where it should be: between 1/64 and 1/32. The nut has been out of this banjo but the original nut is in it. My action between frets 1&5 is good: actually feels a bit low but at the upper registers you can see it is high and if feels high - a bit difficult to play. My bridge is a 5/8. I have used 2 different 5/8 bridges on it (snuffy smith and a Davis) with the same resulting action.
19 Comments |
 | lbartosh says:
2/3/2012 5:34:58 PM
Thats a lot higher than mine with an11/16 bridge. We can get together and figure it out if you want to. I dont live too far
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 | dpskala says:
2/3/2012 7:34:15 PM
I posted photo looking down the neck of my Masterpiece in my photo area.
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| dpskala says:
2/3/2012 7:49:57 PM
My measurements are 3/32", 4/32",4/32" at 5,12,22 respectively. Bow is set to Stelling specs. I would guess that your neck is not bowing smoothly for some reason. Seems to have all the bending happening between 5 and 12. Are you sure about the neck bow? Those numbers seem to imply that your neck is bending the wrong way. And 10/32" at 22 seems incredibly high to me.
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 | Norand says:
2/3/2012 11:54:11 PM
Did you buy it recently, or was it something that happened to it while you have owned it?
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 | From Greylock to Bean Blossom says:
2/4/2012 4:25:12 AM
Guys,
Sorry, I feel pretty dumb this am. dpskala is correct in that my stated measurements were wrong. My action at 12 is 5/32 and at 22 is 6/32. When I looked at what I said, almost 1/2 of an inch. Sorry, but this still feels higher than I want.
This morning I checked the coordinator rods for being neutral and they were.
I have had the banjo for a while but have not played it much in recent years. Somebody in trying to lower the action for me adjusted the truss rod and it took all the life and volume out of the banjo. Last year someone else in looking at the banjo released the truss rod and the banjo came to life.
Ken
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| dpskala says:
2/4/2012 4:51:51 AM
If you don't have Geoff's Stelling manual, go online and get a copy. Or I'm sure you can find good setup info online too. Check and adjust the neck bow to spec if necessary, set head tension to get the sound you want (I use computer audio analyzer for this so as to be objective and repeatable), then use the coordinator rods to lean the neck back and forth until the action is to your liking. I like 1/8" at 22 myself; everyone has their own preference. If you change the head tension again, you may need to re-tweek the action. Then try moving the tailpiece up and down a little until you get the sound you like. Readjust action again if necessary. Everything is interconected, but if you follow a logical sequence of adjustments, you can get everything pretty close to what you like - playability, sound.
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| From Greylock to Bean Blossom says:
2/4/2012 5:00:24 AM
Dennis,
I have read the Stelling set up specs on the Stelling page. My head is tuned almost to A. I am a bit afraid to tweek the neck with the coordinating rods as I don't want to put the rim out of round. I am also concerned that maybe my nut has too much wear in it because my action seems pretty low in frets 1-5.
ken
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| dpskala says:
2/4/2012 5:33:13 AM
The upper rod should be neutral - basically just snug. You use the lower rod to pivot about the upper neck/rim connection to lean the neck back and forth. Unless something is really way out of whack, it's hard to see having to make an adjustment so big as to worry about the rim going out of round. If you're worried about that, you could rig up something to measure it.
Nut wear - you can put a shim under the nut to compenstate for that. Hardwood veneer would do nicely. If you can't find suitable shim material, I have some 1/32" maple veneer and would be happy to send you a small piece.
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 | grm405 says:
2/4/2012 9:04:24 AM
Is your neck tight to the pot? The lower coordinator holds the neck to the pot and if even a little loose will allow the neck to pull away from the pot and cause high action. Loosen the nut on the lower rod (inside and out) and using a allen wrench or small screwdriver in the holes in the rod, tighten the rod on the lag screw. It should be firmly tightened. Then tighten the nuts in a neutral position.
Had a Gold Star where the lag screw was slowly pulling out of the neck and causing high action after a few months. Glued it in place and fixed that.
Gerry
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| From Greylock to Bean Blossom says:
2/4/2012 9:14:31 AM
Gerry,
thanks for you post and help. But yes when I had the nuts at the ends of the coordinator rods loose, I put a nail through the lower coordinator rod and tightened is as much as it would go.
I think I have ghosts in the banjo.
Ken
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 | Geoff Stelling says:
2/4/2012 2:06:01 PM
Ken,
The comments from Dpskala and others are worth considering and dead on. You can adjust the rim rods to move the action up to 1/16" if necessary, but you should not have to. I suspect that your truss rod adjustment needs some tweaking, and/or the neck might need some heat treating to get the right shape in it. As you already experienced, tightening the truss rod nut too much flattens the neck and squeezes the life out of it. Too much bow makes it play sharp and with high action. Just the right amount of bow makes it sound great and play easily. If the truss rod is working correctly, you should be able to have a difference of 1/64" between the 22nd fret and the 12th, and action of 1/8" at the 12th or the 22nd as needed. The 12th should be 1/64" lower than the 22nd. Naturally, the neck connection to the pot should be tight with both rim rods snug at the neck end. Our Field Service Manual might be very helpful if you are not comfortable with all these adjustments.
Geoff
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| dpskala says:
2/5/2012 4:59:20 AM
BTW Ken, you must be doing something radically different than I if you're causing nut wear. I can't see how you could do that if you tried. You mentioned that the nut had been removed and put back. The Stelling nut is compenstated. Check and make sure you don't have it on there backward. The recesses should face the working part of the strings.
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| From Greylock to Bean Blossom says:
2/9/2012 4:24:50 PM
Dennis,
I made that dumb error and had corrected it before I posted.
Thanks,
Ken
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| dpskala says:
2/10/2012 2:00:08 PM
It's only dumb if you do it again.
Oh yeah, and the grooves in the nut should face up, away from the fretboard. ;-)
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| dpskala says:
2/10/2012 2:00:20 PM
It's only dumb if you do it again.
Oh yeah, and the grooves in the nut should face up, away from the fretboard. ;-)
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| dpskala says:
2/10/2012 2:01:25 PM
It's only dumb if you do it again.
Oh yeah, and the grooves in the nut should face up, away from the fretboard. ;-)
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| dpskala says:
2/10/2012 3:12:35 PM
Not so dumb as repeating a post 3 times! Sorry. The software kept telling me there was a disk error.
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 | Eastbanjo says:
2/17/2012 7:54:51 PM
you can go back and edit...... just delete
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| From Greylock to Bean Blossom says:
2/18/2012 5:58:43 AM
Dennis,
I was impressed as I thought you were a cautious man and the 3 posts were just making sure the message got there. -).
Here is a post I made on getting my Bellflower fixed: banjohangout.org/topic/228220.
I was about ready to get in the car and drive to see Geoff in Virginia but that is a 20 hour round trip drive for me.
The set up which I mentioned in my post of a 5 star frosted head with the frosting removed (by using acetate) and the Sosebee bridge sounds fantastic to me. If any of you feel like tinkering, I would encourage you to try this. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying the Bellflower.
Larry, Dennis, Geoff, Gerry & Anders: I thank you all for answering my post and for your willingness to help. I hope that someday we can meet -especially my fellow Hoosiers: Maybe at Bean Blossom some day.
Again, Thank you all.
Ken
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