I’ve had a hideous buzzing noise emanating from my banjo for a long while and I finally tried changing out the bridge for a Deering Smile bridge. I wish I had done it sooner, the difference was immediately noticeable. The buzz is gone and I've learned some things about my banjo along the way. I’m posting a photo of the old bridge seated in the cut out of the smile. You can see how compressed the old bridge got but you cant see how warped and bowed it is. I’d guess between 1/16 and 1/8” of bow in the middle. Change out your bridges people! Have a nice day!
It's quite common for banjo bridges to sag in the middle over the years. Some bridge makers "pre-sag" their bridges, Deering is one of them although not the first, to prevent that.
Chances are huge that you could have stopped your bride's buzzing by cleaning the bridge's slots, it's one of the things to do as regular banjo maintenance. Here's how:
https://banjobridge.com/br-06b.htm
Added: down & dirty > sometimes you can grab the bridge by its top and rock it back and forth, towards and away from the tail piece (pivoting on the bridge's bottom) a bit,
Edited by - Bart Veerman on 11/02/2024 07:31:06
Bart is a master of the bridge making art, Listen to him, he gives very good advice!
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Originally posted by mikeb210You can see how compressed the old bridge got but you cant see how warped and bowed it is.
As Bart said some bridges are made this way. The Deering Smile bridge is definately made like this.
Bart Veerman when the buzzing started one piece of advice I was given was dust the bridge and nut with graphite. What order do you recommend I follow to troubleshoot the next weird buzz? Try cleaning, then dust? Dust in a pinch, clean regularly?
@grahamhawker the bridge in that photo is the standard Deering 5/8" I converted to a smile
Edited by - mikeb210 on 11/02/2024 14:50:08
Some sag but basically you replaced the buzzing bridge with a taller bridge.
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Originally posted by steve davisSome sag but basically you replaced the buzzing bridge with a taller bridge.
I'm confused are you saying that the standard 5/8" bridge is shorter than the 5/8" smile bridge or that the standard bridge in the picture I posted is actually a smile bridge? Or something else?
I’m also confused about when to dust the slots with graphite and when to clean them. That seems like two contradictory actions and I’m trying to understand the utility of each.
I’m a HUGE fan of the smile bridge, and have them on all 3 of my banjos. Before them, I used to make my own by buying taller bridges, and sanding the bottom into a smile. As a guitar player, who loves a radiused fretboard and bridge, a saggy banjo bridge alway gave me trouble.
A sagging 5/8” banjo bridge is actually 5/8” minus the amount of depth the bridge is pressing into the banjo head. So when it sags in the middle with age, the center strings eventually get low enough to buzz on the frets. The smile bridge compensates for the head deflection, as if the head were perfectly flat, and the string height doesn’t change, because the bridge never sags. I’ve had one of the early Deering Smile bridges on one of my banjos since 2017, and it’s still perfectly level across the top.
Make sure and check your head tension. I use a drum dial, and a friend of mine had one of my banjos for 4 years, and in that time the head tension went from 90 on the dial, down to 82. Definately a cause for sagging bridges and buzzes.
Also consider head tension as a cause for sympathetic buzzing. A head tuned to a G note can sound like a buzzing sitar every time you hit a G note. I recently had my old Goodtime banjo head set right on 90 on the drum dial, and it was freaking out and buzzing out every time I hit an A note. I spent several days trying to find the buzz, but couldn't find any high frets, and the action it way above any buzzing problems. I went around the whole banjo tightening up every nut and screw and the co-rod and the tuners etc, and still buzzing. Finally deduced it could be head tension, and sure enough, I reduced it to 89 on the dial, which I hypothesize is between a G# and A note, and the buzzing is gone, and it plays solid and sounds fantastic.
Edited by - Dean T on 11/03/2024 13:38:00
And yes, I’ve never actually measured a Deering smile bridge, but like you, have taken an old saggy 5/8” bridge, and placed it in the smile bride cut out, with the identical results as your photo! This tells me that a Deering 5/8” smile bridge must indeed be slightly taller than an 5/8” standard flat bridge. I’m speculating that this is part of the way Deering compensates for the head indention. We need more actual scientific data
Graphite? I read abou that in Banjo Newsletter forever ago. Tried rubbing a pencil through the string & nut slots. No diff. Bought graphite powder and tried that. No diff there either so I never bothered with it since.
Keep in mind, the strings exert an obscene number of PSI's onto the bridge slots so there not a whole lot of string-sliding going on through them slots anyways. Instead, the strings kinda grab the bridge top and yank it along while tuning the strings. Yup, sometimes enough to experience that firecracker-like bang when the bridge slaps itself onto the head. Keep that in mind and check if the bridge isn't leaning too far off from straight up. Well, leaning just a tad towards the tail piece is actually a good thing.
The 5/8" Smiley? Hmmm, my calipers claim it's a 656 (16.7 mm).
Oh, welcome to the Hangout 
Bart Veerman thats exactly how my experience played out with graphite as well. Didn't seem to help the buzzing and created a kind of blast zone effect of dust splatter on the head.
Dean T I wasn’t sure is the bridge being smushed or is the smile just taller to begin with. I have an email conversation back and forth with Deering support, I’m sure I can get us an answer as soon as I figure out how to say “hey one more thing…” for the umpteenth time. They’ve had saintly patience so far considering how little money I’ve spent in exchange
According to Bart, the smiley is .656” and a 5/8” equals .625”…. So smiley is indeed taller! Thanks Bart!
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Originally posted by Dean TAccording to Bart, the smiley is .656” and a 5/8” equals .625”…. So smiley is indeed taller! Thanks Bart!
I missed the calipers remark, thanks Bart!
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Originally posted by Dean TAccording to Bart, the smiley is .656” and a 5/8” equals .625”…. So smiley is indeed taller! Thanks Bart!
Sounds to me like they are calling it a 5/8 bridge, because they are measuring from the bottom of the feet to the bottom of the slot. That is really the only measurement that is important. It doesn't matter how much wood is above the bottom of the string slot because that won't affect the string height above the frets.
Dave Bird mentioned: Sounds to me like they are calling it a 5/8 bridge, because they are measuring from the bottom of the feet to the bottom of the slot. That is really the only measurement that is important. It doesn't matter how much wood is above the bottom of the string slot because that won't affect the string height above the frets.
For "in the good ol' days," or V-type slots DIY bridges sometimes that is correct indeed. However, for professionally made bridges nowadays not at all so much. Slots these days are only about the depth of the thickness of the strings + 3~6 thou wiggle room to prevent buzzing, which is negligible for practical height measuring purposes.
Ideally, the top of the strings need to be flush with the height of the bridge so the whole thing is at the advertised height and your fingers can be happy & comfy.
Banjo bridges, and their designs, have come a very long way since the "gotta buy a dozen to find just one good one" days of yore.
Anyhoo, my apologies for getting too far off topic..
Edited by - Bart Veerman on 11/04/2024 20:48:19
