I haven't done any updates on the Rutherford banjo for a while. That's because we've been having a bit of a rethink. The original set up was made with the neck parallel to the head and this produced a loud banjo with a very high action. It also produced a neck which became progressively sharper as you played up it. Although harry and I were pleased with the first set up it obviously wasn't right. The problem was how to fix it?
We used Roger Siminoff's Constructing a 5-String Banjo: A Complete Technical Guide which is good and has a full set of plans, but there always seems to be something on which he goes a bit quiet - the angle of the neck. In his plans the heel is shown with a very slight angle at the point at which it meets the pot. Originally we thought this might be a mistake in the printing as this isn't mentioned anywhere in the book, at least not explicitly.
Not to run Siminoff's book down its great for getting all the components in the right order for building, you also need so advice on setting up, so I also bought How to Set Up the Best Sounding Banjo by Roger too! This book gives you the other half of the story, getting all the bits you made to fit together and make the right sound, but the crucial detail of the vital neck angle only shown in the plans and never mentioned is only mentioned in one paragraph in this otherwise excellent book!!!!
I spoke to friend who made a living as a luthier and he said something very telling, 'If we told you all the secrets you'd make it for yourself and I'd be out of business'. But at least with this little hint we knew where we were going wrong. The tricky part has been putting it right. Over the last few weeks we have reset the neck twice the first time we over compensated and the strings touched the frets - action too low. harry has since reset the neck again and hopefully this time it'll be right.
At the moment she's sitting here waiting to be reassembled and restrung - fingers crossed.
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