banjolin neck replacement

[bluegrassdan]

Ive got an old banjolin with a twisted bolt on neck. Could i take the neck from a Saga Astyle mando kit and adapt it to it?

[bmac]

If you watch ebay for a few weeks you should come up with an old junker with a straight neck.

Isn't there a dowel stick running through the pot? I have woreked on some and have seen lots of old ebay banjo-mandolins but they all have wooden dowel sticks inserted in the neck and extending to the long tailpiece attachment screw. I haven't seen one without the dowel stick. And if there is a dowel stick there are no screws needed to hold the neck in place.

I would assume you could adapt a Saga neck from a kit but that seems to be a really expensive way to fix the problem and I am not sure it would really fix anything.. Is there anything like an adjustable metal rod replacing the dowel stick in the pot (as are found in mondern banjo-mandolins)? I find it hard to believe that it never had a dowel stick or metal rod of some sort inside the pot. These dowel sticks or metal rods are important to counter the pull of the strings on the pot and thus prevent distortion of the pot.. In a modern one the metal rod can also adjust angle of pot relative to the neck.

It would also be possible to straighten the neck but that would hardly be worth the effort in an inexpensive instrument unless you knew how to do it yourself. My guess is that your instrument is incomplete or, if it never had a dowel stick, was so cheap originally that it is not worth fixing.

Photos would be very helpful (necessary) in determining how to approach the fix.

Bart

[mandroid]

I have 2 BM's there is a lot more material in the Heel to make rim-stick joint, [and/or], screw thru the rim into,
for the co-ordinator rod and the other screw. there is a steel rod running across pots of gibson bm's, but most are using a rim stick of wood , mortised in neck heel , often that joint needs regluing.

pull frets level the fingerboard and re fret?

Or, Why not just make one from scratch? buy A pre-slotted fingerboard, pattern off of the original one. ..