That's a Waverly neck brace. It's not designed to adjust the action; it just keeps the neck in place. The quickest way to lower the action is to use a lower bridge. You don't have a lot of leeway to adjust the action on this banjo.

Is the neck currently "loose" on the connection to the pot, in any way? Can you wiggle the neck up and down in relation to the pot? If so, that neck brace might be loose. If it is, push upward on the heel of the neck to get the fingerboard up a little higher in relation to the plane of the head, and see if the action becomes a bit lower. Then use the neck brace to tighten the neck to the pot, in that spot.

It might not work, but it's worth checking. Sometimes there is some slop in the size of the opening that the dowel stick goes through, permitting the neck to move up and down a little... If the dowel already fits tight in the square hole in the rim, you're basically stuck with learning to play high action, or switching to a shorter bridge.

Good luck.

quote:

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Originally posted by Culloden

That's a Waverly neck brace. It's not designed to adjust the action; it just keeps the neck in place. The quickest way to lower the action is to use a lower bridge. You don't have a lot of leeway to adjust the action on this banjo.

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Thanks I may have to try a lower bridge. But it was fine before I stored it idk

Thanks I was a little sloppy. I think tightening helped a bit. I just can't understand why it changed. I've played the heck out of it made videos for YouTube. It was a good player to me 

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Originally posted by The Old Timer

Is the neck currently "loose" on the connection to the pot, in any way? Can you wiggle the neck up and down in relation to the pot? If so, that neck brace might be loose. If it is, push upward on the heel of the neck to get the fingerboard up a little higher in relation to the plane of the head, and see if the action becomes a bit lower. Then use the neck brace to tighten the neck to the pot, in that spot.

It might not work, but it's worth checking. Sometimes there is some slop in the size of the opening that the dowel stick goes through, permitting the neck to move up and down a little... If the dowel already fits tight in the square hole in the rim, you're basically stuck with learning to play high action, or switching to a shorter bridge.

Good luck.

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It's possible that the dowel stick has come loose from the neck. In that case maxing out the neck clamp like it seems to be would have actually raised the action, by pushing the rim out of shape.