I bought a Gold Tone neck last year.The radiused neck 150.
Everything done except the heel cut.
Is there anyone between Massachusetts and Maine that can do a good fitting heel cut on this neck?
If I can't find anyone around here I'm sending it back to Gold Tone for them to fit,but I'm trying to not have to send my pre-war rim all the way to Florida in the mail.
I'm sure it would be OK,but I'm still very nervous about doing that.
I don't know Jake Wildwood in Rochester VT but I come across his videos on YouTube fairly often. He certainly appears to be capable and has a heart for vintage instruments.
jakewildwood.blogspot.com/
When those Gold Tone necks first showed up a friend of mine bought one and sent his Mastertone down to Titusville to have Gold Tone do the swap. I later put his Gibson back to original and put his Gold tone neck on a Sullivan parts kit. There are threads about those projects back in the archive. I was critical of Gold Tone for the job they did.
Here is a video of my friends banjo at the Gold tone shop.
He later realized he made a big mistake.
youtu.be/0uaKb3RYP5g?si=d3w6anAdDDKnWi7g
Here is the Goldtone neck during it's journey to the Sullivan. I was shocked to find the hanger bolts mangled.
Steve,
If you end up using Gold Tone to fit your neck I had a good experience with the Titusville shop earlier this year. I have an 80's Ome XXX five string in great shape and sounds good, but it has not been my player 5-string resonator banjo. I did not have a playable tenor banjo and have always wanted one of Ome's necks with the Renaissance Artist inlays. They have some unfinished NOS Ome necks from the Colorado shop in stock. I bought one of the tenor necks on-line with assistance from Justin Grizzle and the finish, fit, and setup came out great.
Not too long of a wait either.
I only sent them the pot in the case along with the hanger lugs from the old neck, but they installed new lugs and returned the originals.
All in all I'm very happy with the job they did on the conversion to tenor.
I have another banjo needing a dowel stick reset and heel cut and was thinking about trying this shop in Berlin, MA:
mockingbirdmusic.com/
I remember seeing Mockingbird Music in the vendor section at the annual Joe Val Festival years ago and was impressed with the instruments they had on display back then. Have not contacted them yet to see if they do that kind of repair work.
I'd be interested in having Jake Wildwood's shop do the repair, but he has a notice on the website that they are backed up with major repair work - although the notice is dated 2024.
Edited by - Mark D on 09/03/2025 17:12:56
