A friend of mine asked me to fix up an old Bacon Belmont 4 string he bought when he was in high school. It's really not worth much, but he wants to hang it on the wall if nothing else. Anyway, most of the binding is missing on the neck. I was looking at Stewart McDonald and they have the binding for guitar bodies. Is this the same binding used on banjo necks? If not, where can if get some binding that might work on the neck?
Yes, binding is binding. Guitar and banjo binding are the sme material. (Though new binding may not be the same as vintage binding.) What you need for your instrument and application (neck vs resonator, for example) depends mostly on size (height x thickness) and color or type (pure white plastic, grained ivoroid celluloid).
StewMac has the most common sizes, colors, and types. And these installation instructions confirm guitar and banjo bindings are the same stuff.
If you need ivoroid, be prepared for a hefty hazmat shipping surcharge. It's highly flammable and even explosive.
Edited by - Old Hickory on 11/05/2024 10:01:49
If you're on a budget, Chinese sellers on eBay supply binding much cheaper but delivery takes weeks.
Look carefully at the pictures - some of the binding is in lurid colours which really won't work on a vintage instrument!
You will need to match binding size, via measuring, as reasonably close as you can. You want to minimize razor blade scraping. There is a learning curve. Hard to bind a whole neck and scrape it all down on a neck you’re not going to refinish and not have some flaw of razor wobble or gouge or glue run.
Thanks for the info and suggestions!
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