Just relating my experience, in case anyone else has off center strings and might be interested. I’ve been playing this banjo a year now. Possibly my favorite banjo ever. But when I bought it, the strings were not centered, causing the 1st string to be too close to the edge. Playable, but not quite right. I disassembled and reassembled the banjo, and the integrity of the neck to pot is fantastic, solid, no slop, full tight contact. No way I would mess that up, and I’m not interested in crooked tailpiece bolts, or uneven bridge pressure. So decided to live with the strings not quite centered. But, occasionally I would push the d string over the edge, or quite often it would get caught in my finger fold, and not get a clean chord. The more I gig with it, the more that was unacceptable. So, today I removed the tailpiece “L” bracket, got my Dremel out, and elongated the mount hole in the “L” bracket, and reinstalled it 1/8” to the left of center. WALLA!!! This moved the tailpiece and strings over, to perfectly center the strings. Clean fix, everything straight, tight, and solid, and bridge completely neutral. It plays better than ever, and I’m super happy.
Perfect! I’m glad to hear it worked. Sometimes this can be done by loosening the L bracket, tilting it to the left and re-tightening the nut while holding it tilted.
I have a Sierra and your experience as well as far as D string close to edge. I edged the bridge toward the middle and center third string against an inlay that seemed to be centered in good shape and have had no other issues. Good job on the adjustment though. The neck as a whole is the best playing neck I have ever had on a banjo.
Bobby
quote:
Originally posted by BobbyEI have a Sierra and your experience as well as far as D string close to edge. I edged the bridge toward the middle and center third string against an inlay that seemed to be centered in good shape and have had no other issues. Good job on the adjustment though. The neck as a whole is the best playing neck I have ever had on a banjo.
Bobby
Thanks Bobby! I agree!!! I love the neck 
. I had an incident probably 20 years ago now, where I centered the strings by moving a bridge... and the bridge decided to pop back into place mid song! Of course everything was instantly out of tune. Just last week I put a suede head on the banjo, and it's a lot slicker than the frosted head, so moving the bridge, and getting it to stay, isn't an option. That's also why I decided to reposition the L bracket and tailpiece, was to get the bridge centered, with no preload. I also contemplated tipping the L bracket slightly, as mentioned above, but decided against that too. The Deering tailpiece likes to move, and can get finicky with anything but a straight even pull down.
I have to wonder if Deering's heel cutter might be slightly out of whack, as I've recently played a deco Goodtime, and it's d string was uncomfortably close to the edge as well. The guy I bought my Sierra from, got it from the factory showroom floor in person. He never did any work on it, so it's been that way since new. Unless I'm missing something, and people just like the string super close to the edge?
Edited by - Dean T on 08/27/2026 09:30:31
Well done. I work on a lot of entry level Asian made banjos (cheapies) and they are rarely made accurately. Some times I end up shimming the neck at the heel both laterally and vertically to get the alignment good as well as the action.
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