I love the opening line: "Banjos tend to be an unpopular subject for YouTube videos... the numbers fall dramatically..."

Sadly, Ted does not know how to do a proper neck reset on a dowelstick banjo.

Bob Smakula

Ted is very analytic and does careful quality work on guitars, in contrast to a couple of his peers on YouTube. Unfortunately his work on violin family instruments and banjos falls short.

"Banjos appreciators sub-set " ?? Number of viewers fall short on Youtube, because most banjo players don't watch his channel. :-))))

Banjo players don't watch his channel because he doesn't usually work on banjos, kind of a catch 22.
So you think he should have done a heel cut? I think he explained why he didn't.

My top 4 YouTube instrument guys are Dan Erlewine, Paul Reed Smith, Jake Wildwood, and Ted Woodford. All 4 are in first place.

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Originally posted by Bob Smakula

Sadly, Ted does not know how to do a proper neck reset on a dowelstick banjo.

Bob Smakula

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Not my area of expertise yet. I have studied the process a little. I do not remember shaving off wood and shimming being part of the process. I have seen and read about removing and reinstalling the dowel stick as well as sawing the dowel stick off and re-drilling for a new one. How to do that correctly is something I am eager to learn about.

A condensed correct method for resetting the neck on a banjo with a dowelstick
1) Remove neck from rim and steam the stick from the neck.
2) Fill hole in neck with wood of a similar species
3) Redrill the hole in the neck for the dowelstick at the appropriate angles. This is exceptionally tricky to get the center line and neck angles where you want them.
4) Fit the neck to the rim, then glue the dowelstick back in to the neck and do the final neck to rim fitting.

This method allows a craftsman to modify the parts as little as possible. The removal of wood from the rim, and drilling a new hole for the tailpiece screw, as done by Ted, are not reversible. As a craftsman and a vintage instrument dealer, I feel those modifications greatly devalue the original instrument.

To make a proper dowelstick neck reset more precise, my long time banjo restoration artisan, Andy Fitzgibbon, repurposed a horizontal milling machine. With this machine we can line up the the location of the hole and the neck angle with precision.

The photos attached give you an idea of the specialized machine. The first photo is the whole machine. The second is a close-up featuring the hinged plate needed to create the correct neck angle.

These two pictures are just a mock up to give you an idea of what it takes to be serious about resetting necks on banjos with dowelsticks. The neck in the picture is not ready to drill.

As I no longer accept repair work in my shop, I can not accept any necks for resetting. Andy Fitzgibbon, though no longer in my employ, is still willing to do banjo repair. Andy is the only person that I would have reset the neck on one of my personal instruments. You can contact him through a Banjo Hangout member search.

Bob Smakula
smakulafrettedinstruments.com

^^ this. Andy does great work, just reglued a loose fingerboard on a Stewart piccolo for me.

Bob Smakula , and to think, most of these banjo necks were set with a brace and bit, a set of gouges and chisels, and eyeballs. But long gone is the journeyman apprenticeship, Sloyd school, and master joiner.

We must share in some black box YouTube algorithm because YouTube pushed this video to me yesterday. I've watched his videos off and on over a year or two and some of the things he does seem more like on the spot improvisation than not. On some guitar repairs his work is interesting and inventive seems to accomplish the repair goal. But I agree with the above comment that his work on banjos and violins may not be the best, I think he does his best staying within the guitar family. Just my 2 cents.