Comment by Trapdoor2 on November 28, 2014 at 15:47

This is a very common "fix", the other being simply to drill another hole thru the rim and move the end of the dowel-stick to the higher hole. My Stewart #3 has such an "extra" hole...but it was done to make the banjo more playable with a 5/8" bridge. I repositioned the stick and converted it back to 1/2" bridge.

Rettburg & Lange banjos, such as their "Paramount" line, have an adjustment on the end of the stick for this kind of need. Later ones also have an adjustable "shim" at the heel of the neck.

Comment by Steve Harrison on November 28, 2014 at 16:02

 Hi Marc...I tried the second hole trick but it didn't give enough adjustment. To get the required angle for the neck, I also had to remove about 1mm from the face of the heel where it buts up against the rim and the fit a 1mm shim between the end of the fret board and the hoop. It's my first fretless banjo and having a shorter neck than my other banjos, it took some time to get used to the left hand finger spacing. It's very pleasing to play none the less...Steve

Comment by Jody Stecher on November 28, 2014 at 18:24

On a fretless banjo you can have whatever left hand spacing you want. And whatever kind of tone you want. But you can't have both unless there is a happy coincidence. The bridge can go anywhere you want to put it. You can lower the action by moving the bridge closer to the tailpiece. This will increase the scale as well.

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