I hadn't played one of my banjos since I brought it home from camp August 16. Got it out to play yesterday and the action was higher than I ever like or could remember setting on this banjo: 5/32 to 11/64 at 22. (I know this type of action might result from 1/8 at 12, but I never set mine that high. It already had one of my slightly shorter bridges on it, so something was off.
Today I took off the resonator and saw that the lower part of the heel was away from the rim by maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch. I should have measured. Plus the lower co-rod nuts were loose. Loosening the outside nut even more, I turned the lower rod until the neck was pulled back into solid contact with the rim. I tightened the nuts just beyond snug so as not to affect action. "Neutral" to the best of my ability. This returned the action to where I like it: No more than 1/8-inch with a 5/8 bridge, 3/32 with a .6 bridge.
That's my story. Here's my question: Why might the neck have gone out of contact with the rim?
I played this banjo a couple times at camp and don't remember anything being wrong. Was it bumped around in travel? Reacting to climate change from the hills of western North Carolina to sea level at the Atlantic shore, then to the DC area?
This happened to another banjo after I got home from another camp back in 2014. My banjo had sounded softer at camp. I had no idea where the volume had gone. Only after I got home did I take the resonator off and see the lower part of the heel out of contact with the rim.
Why?
Thanks for your guesses.
This is purely wild speculation, but is it possible that the nuts which were just beyond snug could have gotten loose if you traveled from a more humid place to a less humid place, or the weather changed? Then if they became loose the rod could become loose too, from vibration over time. The other possibility I can think of is that tiny beings with proportionally huge wrenches are sneaking into your banjo through the holes in the flange and loosening the nuts, but that seems even less likely. Or maybe somebody is gaslighting you in a very random way....
Hey Ken, are the lag bolts snug ? I had one that did something similar, turned out the lag bolt was loose and had to be replaced . Best of luck .
I can see how a loose lag bolt would make the heel pull away from the pot, but I don't know how it would be able to make the nuts come loose. This may just be a failure of my imagination, though.
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