Fender FB-54 1st Banjo Project

First step into my journey of learning the banjo was to actually get one.  Well almost, I quickly realized that it is not a simple decision and required an effort of research of both design and where to buy from.  In the meantime, my curiosity to learn was shared with my piano and uke playing son who I set about sharing everything I had read so far.  It dawned on me that I could take an old guitar and remove the bottom 2 strings.  Next I dug into my stash of strings and put a .009 on the 5th position and was able to make an open G tuning on the guitar for some introductory 5 string roll practice on a pseudo like banjo tuning.  I actually discovered this is a pretty cool sound on the guitar and might explore the possibilities later.  So now at least I can start on the basics of right hand learning while the search continued for my 1st banjo. 

With the power of the internet and lots of web sites (including BHO!), I quickly learned the differences in bottle cap vs. the wood pot and tone ring varieties of Banjos.  My choice to buy kept changing as I went  back and forth in my mind of what I could afford. I had finally settled in on the Recording King RK-R20 as my target, gotta have.  Of course it didn’t go that way as I stopped by my local Guitar Center a couple days later.  I found a Fender bottle cap that someone had brought in for a trade and obviously it had not seen much use.  The Fender FB-54 was marked with a $199 price tag which seemed attractive for a starter bottle cap with the Fender name. Upon closer inspection, I quickly noticed the neck was twisted on the pot, there was a missing J hook, and the tailpiece looked like it was bent from upward string pressure.  Seeing the potential here, I offered the store $150 for it without expecting them to accept.  It only took the “guy in the back” a moment to quickly realize the setup problems and how much time he would have to spend on it.  So in a few minutes, I was walking out the door with my Fender FB-54 project in my hand and my 1st banjo for $150.  I might have been able to offer a few $ less but I’m satisfied with the value at this price point as the overall condition was really nice.

Once home with it, I shared my find with the rest of the family and got my son to help with the complete disassembly.  Once I we had a bucket of parts, and a bare aluminum pot, I started to clean, and  polish everything I could.  Naphtha cleaned all the wood surfaces and a good rub down of Mother’s mag cleaner on all the metal parts.  Made an inspection and inventory of what I needed to buy and ordered found the Golden Gate products easily on Amazon.  The original tailpiece was flimsy and bent out of shape from string tension. Found the Golden Gate Waverly P-117 and looked like a good upgrade.  One of the J hook brackets was missing, so I took advantage and upgraded all of them to newer P44 hooks.  While I was at it, ordered a new 5/8” bridge.

In the downtime between the clean up and waiting for parts to arrive, I poured through BHO for tips on tuning the head and neck setup.  Learned about the Steve Davis head tension method and thought it would be the easiest way to start before buying a drum dial.  So long story short, I proceeded through the rebuild step by step until I had a banjo.  I am more than happy with the results of the assembly and not one bit of trouble.  String action is low to my guitar finger liking, no buzzing, and no problems tuning the head.  So a big thankyou to all those on Banjo Hangout for their help.  I would post names, but there are too many to mention.  I am very thankful to all who are willing to share their knowledge and teaching information on the open forums.  I am forever indebted and will do my best to pass it on likewise.

Here is the shorter version of my Fender FB-54 bottle cap rebuild.

1.  Disassembled completely.

2.  Cleaned wood surfaces with Naphtha.

3.  Dressed fretboard with mineral (very very little)

4.  Inspected frets for level

5.  Cleaned and polished metal parts with Mother’s Mag Cleaner.

6.  Assembled Pot – ( J hooks to finger tight)

7.  Replaced bracket hooks with Golden Gate P-44 (all 30!)

8.  Golden Gate P-117 Waverly style tailpiece    Link

9.  Replaced 1/2” bridge with Golden Gate GB-1 Standard 5/8” bridge

10. Attached neck and added shim to upper heal of neck with .068 thick wood veneer strip to lower action. 

11. D’addario extra light phosphor bronze strings. .009 - ,020

12. Set drum tension to ~A using Steve Davis deflection measurement method.

13. Adjusted truss rod to .010 over 7th fret

14. Inspected nut height

15. With all above conditions, string action height over 12th fret is ~1/16”

16. Tuned to open G and started learning to play!

The Banjo adventure begins!