#Adjust string height ome banjo driver
#Adjust string height ome banjo crack

And somewhere along the way, he managed to break the nut on the neck- a big hunk of it was missing. To hold the neck onto the pot after the lag broke (it broke about 1/4' down in the hole drilled for the lag), the guy simply drilled 2 holes, one on either side of the hole for the rod, and used 2 big flathead wood screws to secure the neck. Breaking the lag bolt is unusual, but when a coordinator rod is over-forced, something has to go, and the lag went instead of the rod. The screw slot I mentioned on the bottom rod was very beat up from using a too-large screwdriver, and the forcing of the bottom rod broke the lag bolt off in the neck's heel. The co-rods had been cranked very severely. this may have been done after ruining the frets so that it was playable. The neck had been removed or loosened, and a shim had been placed at the bottom, close to the heel, which changed the neck angle- it raised, not lowered, the action.

The frets had been ground down to almost nothing with a bastard file, which left several severe gouges in the fingerboard. He was a real know-nothing, who had really butchered the banjo. That was back when super-low action was the hot thing on guitars and banjos. When the banjo arrived I was very distressed- the thing was a basket case!ДЄ previous owner decided to lower the action, I think. The banjo went through a bidding frenzy, and I bid more than I wanted to get it, but I was determined. He described the problems as best he could. He was perfectly honest, but simply didn't know a thing about banjos. The guy was a guitar player who came across the banjo in a music store and bought it very cheap. It looked very good in the pictures, and I wrote the owner asking for details. I had wanted a D for years, but for a variety of reasons, never obtained one until 1997, when one popped up on eBay. My first D was a great example of what NOT to do to an Ode banjo, and a warning to me to be careful when buying a banjo on eBay. so care is required, whether they are loosened or tightened.ДЄctually, your advice was the best- Just don't mess with the rods. The collars on the rods, which take the place of nuts, are quite fragile. All the co-rod parts are best set at finger tight. I've found that as often as not, loosening both the co-rods up, then carefully re-tightening them using just finger tightness will lower the action if it's too high. Don't believe 'em unless they tell you about the problem with the slotted co-rod. If you decide to take your banjo to a repair person, ask first if they are familiar with Odes.

Elderly, Janet Davis, 1st Quality & Bernunzio all could get a new bridge for you. Farquhar bridges are made in 9/16 reproductions of the old Grovers. 916' bridges are available, but not common- any one of the good banjo stores can get one for you. If you don't want to fuss with that, you can sand the top of a 5/8 bridge down a smidge and re-notch it. About anything that's approximately 1/32 or so will work, but I like to use a scrap of soft wood to keep from scratching the gold plating on the hoop. I suggest using a thin shim between the end of the fingerboard and the hoop to lower the action. The factory always cut the neck angle very well, and every Ode/Baldwin I've ever played has excellent action that needs no adjustment, but action is a personal thing. Bust an essential part, and the banjo's a wall hanger for flowerpots. And none of the parts has been made for the past 30 years. even the lag bolts in the neck are different. Absolutely nothing Gibson works, either, as the Ode stuff is threaded differently. All the parts are brass, and they're much easier to break than the steel Gibson style equivalents.

It's the weakest part of the entire banjo's design.ДЇinding any replacement parts for the Ode co-rod system is next to impossible.

#Adjust string height ome banjo crack

And everything is cast brass- easy to crack and break.

#Adjust string height ome banjo driver

It was designed to use a big flat bladed screw driver to change the action, but the slot can't be used without removing the tailpiece.

The Odes' lower rod has a conical end with a slot that is accessible from the outside edge of the rim. The stuff about messing with the co-rods is true they can be adjusted, but it's not worth the risk. All the early Baldwins and Odes used that size- the last couple of years of production use 5/8 bridges.ДЄ 5/8 works, but only adds at most 1/16 overall to the action. The D probably had a 9/16 Grover DeLuxe bridge with the bone inserts originally.