This reminds me of my dad. He was famous for his "five minute jobs". Like happened to Jerry with this mad thing, his small jobs ALWAYS ended up taking days! Thanks for the happy memory, Jerry!
My goodness, Jerry, I got tired just watching you adjust all that hardware. You never cease to amaze me with your patience and logical approach to solving a problem. I have a 1920vs era Gibson tenor banjo that I inherited from my grandfather. It was needed some TLC when I got it. From my perspective, it was a just a collection of nuts and bolts that needed to be cleaned up and oiled, then tightened up properly, so I decided to tackle it myself. I took it apart, serviced everything and reassembled it. I adjusted the neck angle, and strung it up, and it's a very beautiful and functional instrument now. It's very ornate, with a full Mother of Toilet Seat fretboard and peghead overlay. The sides and back of the wooden bowl are inlayed with flowers around the edge, and the Gibson potted flowers on the back. Tenor banjos are a whole lot fun and easy to play once you get the hang of it. A lot of these tenor banjos were made during the first part of the last century, by many different companies, but Gibson is the cream of the crop. Mine survived in amazing condition, the original frets showed very little wear and the nickel plating is all intact. Someone in the past had shimmed the neck poorly and they glued small blocks of wood underneath the bridge feet to raise the bridge up about 3/16". I took the weird shim out of the neck pocket and put it back together at the proper angle. I carved the wood "extensions" off of the bridge feet and tightened the head until I got a good tone and the head didn't sag. I used Flitz Metal Polish on everything until it shined up like a new nickel! I play my tenor banjo fairly often and I think of grandpa, and I try to imagine the full history of this hundred years old instrument. These relics are a part of American history, when the banjo was king. I'm proud to be the custodian of this centurion, and I'll be able to pass it along to the next custodian in the best condition it can be in.
Last summer sometime, I took a notion to build one of these. Then I saw what the StewMac boys wanted for the wood rim, hooks, tone ring, head and a couple other esential parts. The price was way north of 500 bucks! So, that alone scared the socks off me. I guess I really don't need to build a banjolin afterall. Even if this gent pays for your labor, he is getting a bargain.
I've been doing much of the same thing lately, banjos are like working on a vehicle, threads, nuts, bolts, and screws everywhere! lol usually the head size is 11 inch.
Had to do the same thing on an old Kay Kraft tenor banjo that I refurbished for a lady (it was her grandfather's -- no charge also). For some reason, I think it was the thickness of the metal flange on the modern head, the original brackets would not hook up. Ended up putting a slight bend in them all only I just slipped a socket over the hook end and bent by hand -- not very precision but worked like a charm. We both were very pleased with the end result.
We call the body the pot. The wood part is the rim. That head seems to be the wrong size. Needs a different height. Probably high head size. Looking forward to seeing how you handle the fretboard that extends over the pot and usually warps like a ski jump. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe rather than bending all the hooks, add washers under the screwed rim blocks to move them outwards, better in line with the rim? But you know best Jerry, interesting video.
I think this while thing was caused by the pass through posts on the side being too close to the skin. That made it so there was too much thread coming out behind them, and too steep of an angle to come down from the rim. The fact that the caps were too tight is probably due to someone trying to tighten them once they were bottomed out. Would have been better if it had been built with normal nuts, rather than capped ones
Well Jerry. A bit off topic but darn, I blame you for making my Seagull play like a dream. Until I got the urge to try instrument building in my retirement and watched your videos I had no idea that an off the shelf guitar likely had its action set high at the factory and the music store left it as was. Having arthritis in my hands I could barely play my Seagull which had 39 thousands at the 1st fret and 122 thousands at the 12th fret. Today I sanded in a jig the bottom of the Seagull's nut to give me 18/19 thousands and took off 42 thousands after the nut change to have 84 thousands at the 12th fret. Oh my gosh, pleased beyond imagination. What a difference especially with the silk and steel strings I also added. So there, your to blame😊
58th pre-LIKE, 317th sub view... u oughta see my brother's banjolele. A short-scale like that one would be cool as a tenor banjo for Irish Trad session tunes.
All day at work, I deal with similar thread issues. A plant maintenance worker will come in to my store first thing Monday morning with a pneumatic tube push to connect fitting. 10/32 thread appears sometimes, and it looks awfully like 5mm. You don't get that too often, but you gotta be careful. Mostly imperial measure, though you really have to be aware of the British standard pipe thread sneaking in there posing as NPT. It's hard to tell the difference, with my eyes. Why the whole world doesn't get on to a universal standard is beyond my ken. Tube size, 6mm looks a lot like 1/4" but no. 8mm is so close to 5/16" that the diff hardly matters.
The ring inside the skin was probably there because the top edge of the wooden body seems virtually flat. If it was a drum shell it would be tapered so that the skin rests on a sharp edge, like a string on a bridge.
Jerry, I'll bet you those hooks aren't threading further into the nuts because the shafts are bent. I've had those cheap banjo hooks bend/deform over time enough that the only straight course of threads are in the nut and they can't be tightened further.
There is an old thread series used in Britain called BA (British Association). I remember brass nuts and bolt that looked like British Standard Fine (BSF) but did not mate. I think the thread pitch is different
If the head is sourced from an old British instrument, the threads are highly likely to be Bristish Association (BA) thread sizes. I have a few, and they are
I'd bet you have either an old "mongrel screw" an old Franklin Institute thread. it may be a pre-standardized "mongrel screw thread" or someone is making new mongrel screw threads. Seller's at The Franklin Institute proposed standardized screw threads for the US Navy back in the late 1800s based on the British Whitworth standardized thread specs of England, only Sellers decided that a 60 degree pitch was easier to make than the 55 degree Whitworth screw pitch. (SUPER STUPID!!) There was already an early American Metric standard that was going NOWHERE, and several imperial standards that were regional at best. You can find these goofy taps, dies & screw plates from the era of "MONGREL SCREWS". We use SAE & ISO metric now. There is also British Cycle, Whitworth, Franklin, a 19th century American Metric, USA Uniform Screw, Japanese Industry Standard & Deutsch Industry Normal. Yay! We are back into mongrel screw land! British Whitworth was an established standard in the UK and her colonies.
When I experience the same problem I always resort to my old magneto spanners which seem to be very different to any other spanner no matter what their origin is metric or otherwise.
🇬🇧 I think you mean "God save the King". As of 8th September 2022, the Monarch of our United Kingdom, It's Realms and the Commonwealth is King Charles III. Rest in peace, Ma'am. The Queen is dead, God save the King!
Just 1 week after I saw your video I got a banjolin for repair. I have a question. The backside or resonator is fastened with a staybolt which is hollow and has a groove on top of it for a screwdriver. The screwdriver will be hollow and have 2 protrusions that goes into the groove but I can't find a screwdriver,top, bit for it, not even a name for the tool. Do you know that please?
When I have had these kinds of struggles it has been with very old Japanese stuff or Soviet Block junk. Unstandardised poor spec fixings reveal our expectations of well made fixings
It's called a "Banjoele" or Banjo-uke. In a pst video where you showed how to replace the drumhead on one, you referred to it as a toy (which it is not by any means. It is a full-fledged instrument in its own right, not a toy. The Manodlyn you play is about the same size as a Ukelele of banjo Uke and it has 4 sets of string tunings per instrument (even though the Mandolyn carries 8 strings, but each two strings are tuned in pairs to the same note when strummed, so basically you have 8 strings with only 4 paired separate tunings. I must admit that I wasn't happy when you referred to a Ukelele or Banjo uke as just a "TOY like Instrument". Take one string of each of the pairs on the Mandolyn, and you have a wired up Ukelele if it is tuned to G,C,E,A. or better known as "My Dog Has Fleas" tuning. If you prefer wire strings over plastic, then retune and setup an old mandolin that is in rough condition and use it as a Ukelele. Same thing, only wire strings are used instead of plastic and cords/note locations are different.
Yeah, just replace these hook and nut parts. What is on this hoop/rim piece must have come from another planet or a warped dimension -- not worth fooling with 'til Christmas or New Years, really?
You said you can’t. Sell it as it was a gift. . Guy offers 50 dollars and you did not hesitate. Plus you will probably charge him an arm and a leg for the repairs. Plus what you get from youtube. Your videos and your constant complaining have become very tiring. Don't worry I will unsubscribe . Strange how RUclips can change people. Your first years were very enjoyable. Anyway good luck.
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This reminds me of my dad. He was famous for his "five minute jobs". Like happened to Jerry with this mad thing, his small jobs ALWAYS ended up taking days!
Thanks for the happy memory, Jerry!
Most vintage hooks (as well as many new banjo hooks / nuts) are #8-26. (#8-24 is also occasionally seen, but rarer.)
My goodness, Jerry, I got tired just watching you adjust all that hardware. You never cease to amaze me with your patience and logical approach to solving a problem. I have a 1920vs era Gibson tenor banjo that I inherited from my grandfather. It was needed some TLC when I got it. From my perspective, it was a just a collection of nuts and bolts that needed to be cleaned up and oiled, then tightened up properly, so I decided to tackle it myself.
I took it apart, serviced everything and reassembled it. I adjusted the neck angle, and strung it up, and it's a very beautiful and functional instrument now. It's very ornate, with a full Mother of Toilet Seat fretboard and peghead overlay. The sides and back of the wooden bowl are inlayed with flowers around the edge, and the Gibson potted flowers on the back. Tenor banjos are a whole lot fun and easy to play once you get the hang of it.
A lot of these tenor banjos were made during the first part of the last century, by many different companies, but Gibson is the cream of the crop. Mine survived in amazing condition, the original frets showed very little wear and the nickel plating is all intact. Someone in the past had shimmed the neck poorly and they glued small blocks of wood underneath the bridge feet to raise the bridge up about 3/16". I took the weird shim out of the neck pocket and put it back together at the proper angle. I carved the wood "extensions" off of the bridge feet and tightened the head until I got a good tone and the head didn't sag. I used Flitz Metal Polish on everything until it shined up like a new nickel!
I play my tenor banjo fairly often and I think of grandpa, and I try to imagine the full history of this hundred years old instrument. These relics are a part of American history, when the banjo was king. I'm proud to be the custodian of this centurion, and I'll be able to pass it along to the next custodian in the best condition it can be in.
You have the patients of a saint. I know you won't quit till you get it like you want.
Last summer sometime, I took a notion to build one of these. Then I saw what the StewMac boys wanted for the wood rim, hooks, tone ring, head and a couple other esential parts. The price was way north of 500 bucks! So, that alone scared the socks off me. I guess I really don't need to build a banjolin afterall. Even if this gent pays for your labor, he is getting a bargain.
The metal "hoop" that's sitting on the rim is a very simplistic tone ring. It helps project the sound.
I've been doing much of the same thing lately, banjos are like working on a vehicle, threads, nuts, bolts, and screws everywhere! lol usually the head size is 11 inch.
Thank you for many educational videos. Greetings from Arnbak Banjos. Handcrafted banjos in Denmark.
Had to do the same thing on an old Kay Kraft tenor banjo that I refurbished for a lady (it was her grandfather's -- no charge also). For some reason, I think it was the thickness of the metal flange on the modern head, the original brackets would not hook up. Ended up putting a slight bend in them all only I just slipped a socket over the hook end and bent by hand -- not very precision but worked like a charm. We both were very pleased with the end result.
I was patiently waiting for this series.
Thank you Jerry!
Marvelous job !!! From start to finish!
A lot of work so far, looking forward to part 2 👍🏻👍🏻
my dad had various pieces of scrap brass bar he would use with his vice to make room between the jaws for more delicate things.
We call the body the pot. The wood part is the rim. That head seems to be the wrong size. Needs a different height. Probably high head size. Looking forward to seeing how you handle the fretboard that extends over the pot and usually warps like a ski jump. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you my brother in arms.
Maybe rather than bending all the hooks, add washers under the screwed rim blocks to move them outwards, better in line with the rim? But you know best Jerry, interesting video.
I was thinking the same as you…missing the washers/spacers?
I think this while thing was caused by the pass through posts on the side being too close to the skin. That made it so there was too much thread coming out behind them, and too steep of an angle to come down from the rim. The fact that the caps were too tight is probably due to someone trying to tighten them once they were bottomed out. Would have been better if it had been built with normal nuts, rather than capped ones
Well Jerry. A bit off topic but darn, I blame you for making my Seagull play like a dream.
Until I got the urge to try instrument building in my retirement and watched your videos I had no idea that an off the shelf guitar likely had its action set high at the factory and the music store left it as was.
Having arthritis in my hands I could barely play my Seagull which had 39 thousands at the 1st fret and 122 thousands at the 12th fret.
Today I sanded in a jig the bottom of the Seagull's nut to give me 18/19 thousands and took off 42 thousands after the nut change to have 84 thousands at the 12th fret.
Oh my gosh, pleased beyond imagination. What a difference especially with the silk and steel strings I also added.
So there, your to blame😊
I do Jerry's set ups, I call it putting the "Rosa" on it.
58th pre-LIKE, 317th sub view... u oughta see my brother's banjolele. A short-scale like that one would be cool as a tenor banjo for Irish Trad session tunes.
These kind of instruments were once popular in England. I wonder if they are British threads?
That was anxiety inducing. Lol
All day at work, I deal with similar thread issues. A plant maintenance worker will come in to my store first thing Monday morning with a pneumatic tube push to connect fitting. 10/32 thread appears sometimes, and it looks awfully like 5mm. You don't get that too often, but you gotta be careful. Mostly imperial measure, though you really have to be aware of the British standard pipe thread sneaking in there posing as NPT. It's hard to tell the difference, with my eyes. Why the whole world doesn't get on to a universal standard is beyond my ken. Tube size, 6mm looks a lot like 1/4" but no. 8mm is so close to 5/16" that the diff hardly matters.
Wouldn't adding washers to the mounts have kept you from having to bend all the tension rods?
The ring inside the skin was probably there because the top edge of the wooden body seems virtually flat. If it was a drum shell it would be tapered so that the skin rests on a sharp edge, like a string on a bridge.
I think that the pins and nuts are made with different thread pitches.
Probably bought separately.
Jerry, I'll bet you those hooks aren't threading further into the nuts because the shafts are bent. I've had those cheap banjo hooks bend/deform over time enough that the only straight course of threads are in the nut and they can't be tightened further.
Try a drum tuning key. Perfect fit.
Excellant
Could they have been threaded using BA dies and taps usually used in electrical industry or optical instruments ?
Do you think it could be some kind of tapered thread , like a minuter pipe thread ????
There is an old thread series used in Britain called BA (British Association). I remember brass nuts and bolt that looked like British Standard Fine (BSF) but did not mate. I think the thread pitch is different
That’s the great thing about standards, you can have so many of them
If the head is sourced from an old British instrument, the threads are highly likely to be Bristish Association (BA) thread sizes. I have a few, and they are
Maybe if you had got some short spacers for the hardware, you might be able to tighten things up more easily.
As an auto tech, I've had to buy lots of weirdo size taps and dies that weren't in my Snapon master kit.
I'd bet you have either an old "mongrel screw" an old Franklin Institute thread. it may be a pre-standardized "mongrel screw thread" or someone is making new mongrel screw threads. Seller's at The Franklin Institute proposed standardized screw threads for the US Navy back in the late 1800s based on the British Whitworth standardized thread specs of England, only Sellers decided that a 60 degree pitch was easier to make than the 55 degree Whitworth screw pitch. (SUPER STUPID!!) There was already an early American Metric standard that was going NOWHERE, and several imperial standards that were regional at best. You can find these goofy taps, dies & screw plates from the era of "MONGREL SCREWS". We use SAE & ISO metric now. There is also British Cycle, Whitworth, Franklin, a 19th century American Metric, USA Uniform Screw, Japanese Industry Standard & Deutsch Industry Normal. Yay! We are back into mongrel screw land! British Whitworth was an established standard in the UK and her colonies.
Wow! What a screwed up mess.
When I experience the same problem I always resort to my old magneto spanners which seem to be very different to any other spanner no matter what their origin is metric or otherwise.
God save the Queen 🇬🇧 and Jerry. G#/A for a banjo head my man.
🇬🇧 I think you mean "God save the King". As of 8th September 2022, the Monarch of our United Kingdom, It's Realms and the Commonwealth is King Charles III.
Rest in peace, Ma'am.
The Queen is dead, God save the King!
@@philgallagher1 True! Just thought I’d tip my hat to a great Lady.
take a smaller wrench and grind or file it to fit.
Just 1 week after I saw your video I got a banjolin for repair. I have a question. The backside or resonator is fastened with a staybolt which is hollow and has a groove on top of it for a screwdriver. The screwdriver will be hollow and have 2 protrusions that goes into the groove but I can't find a screwdriver,top, bit for it, not even a name for the tool. Do you know that please?
looks like this STANLEY 10MM HOB FIXING SCREW Product Code: W00920AXX
Would a drum key fit those hooks??
Isn't 9/32 in the old fashioned ignition wrench set?
I always wonder if the person who botched the instrument watches your channel. I would love to hear their comments while they are watching. 😂
When I have had these kinds of struggles it has been with very old Japanese stuff or Soviet Block junk. Unstandardised poor spec fixings reveal our expectations of well made fixings
8-32?
It's called a "Banjoele" or Banjo-uke. In a pst video where you showed how to replace the drumhead on one, you referred to it as a toy (which it is not by any means. It is a full-fledged instrument in its own right, not a toy. The Manodlyn you play is about the same size as a Ukelele of banjo Uke and it has 4 sets of string tunings per instrument (even though the Mandolyn carries 8 strings, but each two strings are tuned in pairs to the same note when strummed, so basically you have 8 strings with only 4 paired separate tunings. I must admit that I wasn't happy when you referred to a Ukelele or Banjo uke as just a "TOY like Instrument". Take one string of each of the pairs on the Mandolyn, and you have a wired up Ukelele if it is tuned to G,C,E,A. or better known as "My Dog Has Fleas" tuning. If you prefer wire strings over plastic, then retune and setup an old mandolin that is in rough condition and use it as a Ukelele. Same thing, only wire strings are used instead of plastic and cords/note locations are different.
i am yelling to make a wrench and i bet in the next few minutes you probably will.
It's a manjolin
Give him his money back🤣
Jerry 7 th July to 10th September is 2 months not1
Replace that hook.
I think I could have offered you a quick fix instead of doing all that bending. You would need to email me.
That's okay I really wasn't looking for a quick fix I was looking for one that looked the best
@@RosaStringWorks that’s what I meant.
Rumor has it that banjo mandolins have the worst properties of both instruments.
Yeah, just replace these hook and nut parts. What is on this hoop/rim piece must have come from another planet or a warped dimension -- not worth fooling with 'til Christmas or New Years, really?
You said you can’t. Sell it as it was a gift. . Guy offers 50 dollars and you did not hesitate. Plus you will probably charge him an arm and a leg for the repairs. Plus what you get from youtube. Your videos and your constant complaining have become very tiring. Don't worry I will unsubscribe . Strange how RUclips can change people. Your first years were very enjoyable. Anyway good luck.
Goodbye.