banjukebox - Posted - 11/19/2016:  09:18:00

Just finished refurbishing an old Buckbee Banjo .

Here are some pix:

banjohangout.org/myhangout/pho...mid=10599

Edited by - banjukebox on 11/19/2016 09:18:46

oldtimefolkie - Posted - 11/19/2016:  09:22:18

Nice work! How's she sound?

banjukebox - Posted - 11/19/2016:  09:23:41

I'll try to post a sound link later today.

jonredmond - Posted - 11/19/2016:  10:30:55

Very nice. Love these understated banjos. 

rickhayes - Posted - 11/19/2016:  11:53:03

Looks real nice Pat.  Think there are enough brackets?

VancePants - Posted - 11/19/2016:  12:30:56

Hey... great job Pat!  (Rick... ya just can't have too many brackets... or pockets:)

banjukebox - Posted - 11/19/2016:  12:43:17

Only 38 Brackets. It couldn't hurt to have a couple more.

Here's the link to the sound bite:

youtube.com/watch?v=nttUOqgJiNQ

oldtimefolkie - Posted - 11/19/2016:  14:04:14

Great playing, sounds wonderful. What all did you have to do to this one?

banjukebox - Posted - 11/19/2016:  22:13:26

The neck was pretty warped when I bought it. Once I straightened it out, I cleaned up all the hardware, refinished the neck, replaced the inlay, frets and 5th string pip. Then I made a new bridge and nut. Added new tuners, bracket hooks, amber elite head and nylgut strings.

Parker135 - Posted - 11/20/2016:  04:04:49

Just curious.....did you reset the neck/dowel stick?  I don't see any evidence of shimming or moving the dowel attachment to the rim.  You certainly don't seem to be hampered by the likely original high-action low bridge setup.  Thanks for posting.

Leslie R - Posted - 11/20/2016:  07:54:15

Great job on the banjo, and very nice playing.  

I've had an old Buckbee for several years that needs some work, but I've never got around to it.  It might be missing a couple of hooks, but it's in good shape.  I got it at an antique store, along with an old, old, no name tenor.  Still has the cobwebs on it that it came with.  I don't think the neck would need to be refinished, and it seems to be pretty straight.  The dealer told me both came from an old church in Missouri.   Church members had told him, a long time ago, there was a preacher who played the banjo during their church services.

I wish these old banjos could talk to us!  They could tell some stories.

banjukebox - Posted - 11/20/2016:  08:29:34

Good Question! When I first reassembled the banjo the action was really high. I'm new at this, so I tried two things to change that.

First, I plugged the end pin hole in the dowel rod, then I redrilled the hole off-center so that it would tilt the neck slightly.

Second, as you can see from the pictures, I built  a low bridge (this one is about 7/16")

The changes improved the action quite a bit, but it's still high (almost 3/16" at the 12th fret).

I have another old banjo I'm working on now with the same problem. I'm trying to figure out a way to remove the dowel stick and re-cut the neck angle