. Sometime last year, I acquired this banjo from a violin shop owner for $300. There's no brand anywhere on it, but doesn't it look like an SS Stewart? I think so, because of the shape of the peghead, the cherry neck, thick fret ebony fretboard, with the (painted) wood pot and the metal cladding. Also, little holes are drilled into the dowel stick where there may have been that kind of coordinating system that other pictures show. This pot is larger than any other SSS I've seen, 13.5". There are 30 hooks, 19 frets, 20" from the nut to the rim, 2.5" deep rim. I don't know how to determine scale length but the frets are very wide. You can see in the picture that repair work has been done to the dowel stick at the end. It might be steel string damage. The action is really high because the neck is bowed forward from the years of steel tension. The violin shop offered to reset the neck, somehow, involving a wood block attached to change the neck angle... I'm fuzzy with the details. But I don't know what to do yet, couldn't fooling with the neck angle and dowel stick in this way be detrimental to the tone? And besides, I figured the high action only makes it easier for frailing over the neck.
I ordered a Bill Morris 5/8" minstrel bridge, but now I'm wondering if 5/8" is inappropriate for this banjo. I'm thinking one of Joel Hooks two legged 1/2" bridge could be better suited. Probably the best option would be to get both. Already set up is a calf skin head and one of Mark Ralston's old time tailpieces. These old friction pegs slip out of tune when up to pitch, strung with classic nylgut. I could either put minstrel nylgut for C/D tuning to take advantage of lower frequencies with the large head, or maybe there is some way to clean these friction pegs so they hold still?
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Possible SS Stewart and fixing it
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