Hi,
I recently picked up a Terry Mead banjo.
While I was looking into re-stringing it, I noticed that the holes where the strings attach (it's not really a "tailpiece," is it?) appear to be waffled out, for lack of a better term. Picture attached of my own banjo vs. one from Terry's defunct Facebook page.
What's the best way to go about repairing this? I was thinking about filling the worn out holes with slivers of mahogany to take up the slack but I'm more of a cabinetmaker than someone used to working on instruments.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Well eventually they're going to come out! So you need to do something. I believe the PROPER fix is to remove the studs, drill out the holes and refill the holes with dowel. The redrill proper sized holes to screw the studs back in.
You probably can't hurt things much by the quickie method you described, stuffing the holes slightly with good sized slivers of hard wood. That won't interfere with a proper repair later.
Good luck. Don't for goodness' sake let one of those studs come out when you're not watching and it disappears on you! Might be hard to source a replacement.
The picture showing what it should look like shows nylon or similar strings. The picture of the banjo in question shows steel strings, which require more tension. Drilling and dowels is the best fix, but tension required by steel strings may, in time, lead to the same result.
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