CE XX Special Vancouver

[Ruari McLennan]

Hello, I'm a new member,

I'm from Victoria, BC but first learnt to play clawhammer banjo in Aberdeen, Scotland from Ray Stewart. After years of fruitless searching for a Clifford Essex XX Special, I just acquired one in a Vancouver guitar shop, somewhat hacked about.

The 5th string nut and peg have been removed to transform it into a plectrum banjo, and the peg hole was filled in.

I'm posting pics under the above title. I'd like to restore it, and had some questions if you'd be kind enough to oblige with comments:

1. The tone ring appears to be "upside down," although seems perfectly fitted that way, is this wrong?  Or could this be a transitional early model lke the Fairbanks Electric/pre-Whyte Laydie 1899-1900 model that also had the scallops pointing "down" to the rim, instead of up to the head?

2.  The neck is Brazilian Rosewood in a dark almost "black walnut" colour, while the rim is coloured in a reddy tone and may be maple.  Is that an example of intentionally mismatched woods or colouring - I think I read a post indicating Thereallyniceman has seen a number of rosewood necks with maple rims?  If so, should I recolour the rim to match the neck better,  as the colours may have changed in the last century? (I think the banjo, while in very good shape, is not mint and need not be considered museum quality)

3.  The only hardware missing is the original tuners and tailpiece, I thnk I will install Gotoh pegs and a Waverly 5th string peg, all in ebony.

4. With  a mirror I only see one sort of crossways slash mark under the back side of the dowel stick/perch pole, it may only be a scratch, as someone screwed through it and installed a backing plate for a cheap aftermarket resonator.

5. Could I persuade someone with an original to send me closeup pics sometime of:

a) the engraving on the inlays (for re-engraving on the orginal inlays, some of these have worn off);

b) the 5th string peg area, and the ebony nut, also for reproduction and re-installation?

6. I'm also looking for an original tailpiece! If anyone knows of one, let me know.

Thanks very much and I look forward to learning from all of you,

Ruari McLennan

Vctoria BC

[Ruari McLennan]

Thanks! Yes, my luthier Jim Ham is an expert and lover of old open back banjos as well as other stringed instruments and will take neck relief into account.

Actually, the thing is warped quite a bit but I will investigate playing it as is, because the action over the end of the fingerboard is so high, It may just be perfect for clawhammer!

Although my fledgling attempts at classic banjo may suffer up the neck...

Ruari




Trapdoor2 said:

Yes, called (here) "Neck Relief". Typically around 0.016" (.4mm). Usually one places a straight-edge along the frets (spanning from 1 to 22 if you can) and measures it at the 9th fret.

My first professional bluegrass banjo (Stelling) started out perfect but over the years it has flattened out and is now 'dead flat'. It is very picky to play now in the middle of the neck, buzzes, etc. I need to fix it.

 

===Marc
 
thereallyniceman said:

I am pleased they are of help. One thing though, I would strongly suggest that you DO NOT have the neck perfectly straight! A "very" slight upwards curve from the fret 6 or 7 to the nut makes for smoother playing and cuts out buzzes on the lower frets (particularly if playing with nylon strings that do move a lot).

 

[John Cohen]

I think high action is necessary to get more out of these instruments. 4-5mm action at the 12th fret is good (Measure from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string). Both of my CE banjos had been unmolested and had 5mm action at the 12th with a 1/2" bridge.