I bought this old thing off of the local Facebook marketplace this morning and am completely new to a banjo of this vintage. It looks really cheaply made and has been abused with steel strings for who knows how many years, but I would like to get it playable and string it up with some nylon strings and put a calfskin head on it. My biggest question is what to do about the dowel stick. I'm guessing that someone drilled into the fretboard and pinned it in place?? It was missing any hardware for tensioning the stick when I got it also, but that should be an easy fix if I can get the dowel out of the neck without too much damage. The stick isn't tight in the neck and slightly moves side to side with a little up and down motion, but won't pull out because of the suspected dowel pin through the fretboard. Before I do anything to it, I thought it would be a good idea to see if anyone here had any suggestions on getting the dowel out and getting it reset and to make sure the thing is really as overall worthless as I suspect. I would appreciate any help or suggestions!
Edited by - kybanjer on 04/26/2025 19:38:08
Firstly, please post photos of the entire banjo, front back, peghead, side of peghead side of neck, etc.. Please use the focus feature on your phone, this is usually activated by holding the phone very still and touching the place you would like to focus on.
It looks like the rim has been flipped. By this I mean it looks like someone has removed the head and neck, reinstalled the neck with the fingerboard facing the bottom of the rim and installed the head over the bottom of the rim. My guess was that they were trying to move the head bearing to the "wired" side of the rim.
The nuts are also upside down. The rounded part should be facing down.
It also appears to have been fully refinished. Neck attaching hardware might have just been two wood screws.
Here are some more photos- I hope that they will be good enough!
Yes, rim is upside down. The make is Lyon & Healy and most certainly has been refinished.
Thanks Joel! So considering it’s condition with the refinish and all, the collector value is probably gone?
This level of “jobber” banjo did not have much monetary value to began with. I’m afraid it was, and always will be a low end price point banjo.
They can be fun to play. But they are what they are.
Excellent! I’m planning on refinishing it while I’m at it. Can’t wait to get it fixed up to playable condition!
Thanks again for your help!
David, I suspect you are right about the dowel stick being screwed in from the fretboard. You might try checking with a magnet (not definitive) to see if there is a ferrous screw buried there. I can't see it being loose in the socket without something like a screw to hold it in.
You really can't plan too far ahead until you get it out and can check the condition of the tenon.
Good idea on the magnet. I’ll test that out in the morning. I was thinking earlier about options and was considering putting the neck in the drill press vise and drilling through that plug in the fretboard with a small drill at first just to see if it hits metal, and going from there. There’s definitely some sort of pin or screw in there, and the dowel is going to have to come out of the neck somehow.
Well, there was no luck with the magnet. I'll go to with the exploratory hole drilling routine next.
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