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I need to tap into the vast knowledge here guys. I'm reparing a broken neck on a MB-200 Banjo for a friend. When I recieved it the neck was loose from the body of the instrument. After looking at several vids describing how to adjust the coordinating rods, I removed the resonator thinking I'd have to adjust the rods to get the neck solid.

Hmmm, this only has one rod. It's tight and snug to the body. But there is a screw on the heel that gets covered up by the resonator. Wonder what the screw is for. Let's see if it's tight. No, but turning it CW doesn't do anything. What the heck, let's go CCW. Bingo! the neck sucked up tight.

I hate by guess and by gosh, so can anyone tell me definitively what the screw is supposed to do? It was damaged while new, so I really don't want to disassemble the rod and neck if I don't have to. I'd rather leave it at factory settings if possible.

You found out all by yourself, Allan.
Banjos are weird - that's why I made my apprentices work on them.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I will say this. The rod slot thing to adjust the height of the FB, thereby adjusting the action is a lot better thought out than any guitar I've seen. Of course the sound comes from a little different place than on a guitar...

You should try some with the wooden stick....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

The neck is held fast to the shell by tightening the big nut on the inside. There is typically a big lock washer under the nut.

The slotted screw in the heel runs up toward the fingerboard, through the end of the rod that is threaded for that big nut. The screw is there to keep the rod from pulling out.

AFTER the inside big nut is tight so the neck is solidly mounted to the shell, the turnbuckle nut can be turned to push/pull on the rod that goes through the shell. It has an effect of distorting the shell slightly to make minor neck angle adjustments. Tighten it too much and you can compress the shell to a bit of an oval, loosen it too much and you can bend the skinny rod. Otherwise, no danger there.

If that bit of setup doesn't result in an acceptable neck angle, we'll typically loosen the big nut and stick a shim at the end of the fingerboard to pull the neck back as it is retightened.

It's a cheap banjo with cheap parts and I'm sure it's doing the best it can. . .

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
FRETS.NET

Thanks Frank! That's what I needed to know.

As I mentioned, this thing was broken while new. So if I can keep the factory settings and they produce an acceptable player, I'll be happy. I signed on to reattach the headstock. After that if the friend wants to pay for a set up, he can take it to his favorite boys at Mass St.