Hello - I picked up a 1920s Vega Little Wonder which seems in fine structural condition, but is pretty unplayable for me. I don't have a banjo doctor on call so I'd like to diagnose what I can.
One obvious problem is that the action is far too high. I've been searching the archives on how to look at this. I measure 11/64 at the 12th fret, versus about 1/32 at the first fret. Bridge is 9/16 at the string. Relief seems OK - when I fret at 17 and 1, the 7th fret has a tiny bit of daylight but nothing I can measure. Eyeballing the neck it looks straight (but tbh my vision isn't that great).
The only thing I can think of is to shorten the bridge. It makes sense to me that I would need a shorter bridge since the scale length is so short (20.5). Do they even sell bridges shorter than 9/16? I did read about sanding it down. But I would have expected to find a little more concrete information from other people facing the same issue.
Any recommendations? I'm also going to try some new strings since it feels like lead even in first position.
Thanks!
That banjo was originally built to take a 1/2” bridge.
You can also put a (thin) shim between the neck and the rim, that helps very much. Not thicker than a credit card, it’s enough and causes no structural damage.
I have bridges at 1/2" height. Depending on the situation, this might not be the complete solution though.
The cause for me on most of my old banjos has been deformation of the rim over time at the neck joint. I've done both shimming and flossing the neck joint to change the angle with final playability bring pretty good for each method. I'd look to make sure that the neck joint is tight first.
Most old Vega tenor banjos need a neck reset to get the string height to a comfortable specification. Unfortunately it a fairly expensive procedure, costing around $400 for a professional job.
Bob Smakula
smakulafrettedinstruments.com
Thank you all for your replies!
Is there an article somewhere on how to shim? I'm assuming I put the shim on the fretboard side but I don't know how to open up a gap...
Basically, loosen the neck connection and insert a shim at the top of the joint. Most of these that I see are a piece of veneer. Note that this isn't the best way to fix this but may give you a more playable instrument. The issue is that it reduces the surface area that is joining the neck to rim which may change the sound / reduce the sustain. Instead of having the whole heel against the rim, shimming with likely only have the bottom and top touching after you insert the shim. I think it's better to shim between the neck and rim instead of to the tension hoop if you go down this path.
The advantage of shimming is that it may give you a better action without doing something irreversible even though it's not the best solution.
There are many threads on BHO about this. Here is one: banjohangout.org/archive/320035 You can search the forums for others.
Edited by - euler357 on 09/19/2024 12:50:04
I agree with Bob re a neck reset. I have used shim material (wood veneers) to 'adjust' action down. A neck with a dowel stick however, is very limited to adjust. Lowering a bridge creates problems as it reduces the amount of downward pressure on it from the tailpiece thus the bridge may be prone to movement. I have just finished building a jig that recuts the angle on neck heels. For this, the dowel stick has to be removed.
Edited by - banjonz on 09/19/2024 17:00:04
While a neck reset is the proper way, it's often too expensive for many of the tenor banjos that need them. A shim is cheap and easy and will get the banjo playing. You might sacrifice a little bit of tone and volume but will this be your forever banjo? If you decide it will be, then you can move forward with the neck reset.
