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To adjust the neck angle of these banjos, I simply loosen the neck attaching nut:

In fact, I back it way off. Then I insert a shim between the neck and the shell to improve the neck angle and the action. I find this is far superior to trying to make the flimsy rod do a job that out of its league.



Shims are useful on better banjos, too. If the rods don't adjust the neck easily enough, or if I sense the shell is straining when I crank on the rod nuts, I may use shims to get the neck fitted a bit more closely to the desired angle:

This shim is a piece of heavy card stock, cut to clear the bolt, and trimmed so it won't be too ugly.

The ideal fix for a bad neck angle is to recut the joint and refit the neck, but that may not always be the best choice. Lots of players like to mess around with different bridge heights, for example. It's also reasonable to shim a neck to try out a new setup before making a permanent change. I personally don't get into the discussion of whether the shim may influence the tone.

It's possible to shim the neck angle backward by cutting and fitting veneer or card stock shims here:



or here:

or both.

Shimming the heel to force the neck backward will bring the action lower, and is frequently a good choice when changing to a bridge higher than the standard 5/8" that was stock with this Mastertone.



All early banjos, and some high grade modern "old time" instruments have their necks attached by a heavy "dowel stick" This 75 year old Vega has no neck angle adjustment at all:

That heavy nickel plated yoke screws against the shell, pulling hard on the pin in the dowel stick. That brings the neck up tight against the shell and makes it rigid indeed. It is often possible to make slight neck angle adjustments by loosening the clamp and inserting a shim at the end of the fingerboard. When the clamp is tightened, the dowel will bend very slightly and the neck will be forced backward a bit.

The bitter fact is that to reset the neck angle on one of these old timers, it's necessary to remove the dowel from the neck and rebuild the joint entirely. A big expensive job to say the least.


That's why I really LIKE banjo coordinating rods. I wish guitars could have 'em!

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