DAILY
MAINTENANCE
The continued good quality of your banjo is dependent on your daily efforts
to maintain it. It is best to develop a routine to do every time you put your
banjo away. For example:
1. Wipe the fingerprints and smudges off the metal parts with a clean cotton
rag; then run the cloth up and down the strings and fingerboard. If you don't
wipe the metal parts off, the acid from your skin will react with the metal and
tarnish or eat it away as time goes by. Keep a clean cloth in the case. (If you
want a banjo that won't tarnish, have your banjo chrome plated because this puts
a clear protective coating over the nickel plating which will not allow it to
become affected by the acid from your skin.)
2. Remove the capo, if you used one. The pressure of the capo against the
back of the neck for long periods will eventually mar the finish.
3. Set your banjo in the case carefully so that you don't bump the fifth peg.
After several bumps the fifth peg might suddenly fall out.
The most important daily maintenance is to store your banjo in a hardshell
case or delta case. This will protect it from being knocked around and insulate
it against changes in humidity and temperature.
FINGERBOARD
CARE
To clean the fingerboard, rub it down with Fast Fret, then with a clean cloth
rub the oil into the wood, not leaving any excess on the fingerboard.
If you practice 8-12 hours a day you will wear the frets out within a year.
Don't worry - you'll just need new frets. The factory will do that for you at a
reasonable cost.
If you notice grooves wearing into your fingerboard, one possible cause is
playing with long fingernails. Keep the fingernails on your fretting hand
clipped short.
If you notice grooves in your frets, this is normal wear and tear, however if
it happens within a year you may be pressing harder than necessary when you fret
the neck and may be creating more fret wear than normal. Try using a lighter
touch.
FINISH
Waxing the finish of the neck and resonator protects as well as shines it.
Use the Deering Wax Cloth which has wax in the cloth and is much neater and easy
to use.
Very light scratches in the finish can be rubbed out using either "Meguiar's
Mirror Glaze Auto Polish" or toothpaste, and a cotton cloth. Put some into
the area of the scratch and rub it around so that the fine grit of the polish
smooths the finish. It takes a lot of rubbing to get a banjo polished up. Deep
scratches will need professional attention.
To protect the finish, avoid vinyl or plastics, such as simulated leather
banjo straps which contain solvents that may react with the lacquer finish and
mar it. Avoid commercial furniture polishes containing harsh chemicals or
silicone which can eventually ruin the finish. If you spill water or alcohol on
your banjo, wipe it off immediately because it can leave a cloudy spot.
METAL
PARTS
The metal parts have a thin outer coating of nickel, chrome or gold called
"plating," which can be worn off. You can polish nickel or chrome
parts with an automotive chrome polish, not cleaner, but it is easy to get
polish caught under the hooks when you do this. So, we recommend that you use
the Deering polishing cloth which has the polishing agent in the yellow inside
cloth along with the preservative in the outer gray cloth which will protect the
metal after you clean it. If you use an automotive polish don't use it more
often than every 6 months to a year, and wipe off fingerprints daily in the
meantime. You can use the Deering polish cloth to wipe fingerprints off daily
without harming the plating.
Do not polish gold plating; wipe it off periodically with the grey polishing
cloth only. Gold plating is easily worn off the armrest with normal use. If you
get a gold plated banjo, plan to have the armrest re-plated periodically.
EFFECTS
OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY
The survival of your banjo depends greatly on the environment you put it in.
Made largely of wood, the banjo is easily affected by changes in temperature and
humidity. Deering aims to keep the factory at about 70-77 degrees Fahrenheit and
35%-45% humidity, and these are the optimum conditions for your banjo.
It is important then, that you take all possible steps to maintain your banjo
at room temperature. A rapid change in temperature, or exposure to cold can
create cracks in the finish called "lacquer checks" that are not
repairable under the warranty.
If you must take your banjo out in freezing temperatures, keep it in the
case. When you bring it inside, let it sit in the case so that it can come up to
room temperature slowly.
Allowing your banjo to become too cold or hot invites a crack or warp in the
wood. Heat, as is often found in a closed car on a hot day, can soften or
blister the lacquer and change the contours of the wood, causing the neck or
resonator to warp.
Humid weather increases the moisture content of the wood, causing it to
expand or swell. A gradual increase in humidity won't generally do permanent
damage; but high humidity in combination with high temperature can weaken glue
joints or even open them up.
A skin head tends to expand or loosen when the humidity rises, and tighten
when the humidity drops, considerably affecting the sound of the banjo. If you
tighten a skin head when the humidity is high and then a dry spell comes, the
head may split when it loses moisture and shrinks. Plastic heads, as usually
found on banjos today are only affected by heat, which softens the plastic and
causes it to stretch or loosen easily. For this reason, it is best to tighten
the head under average weather conditions for your area.
Humidity will also affect the curve in your banjo neck. It will arch back
when the weather is dry and bow up when the humidity is high. A truss-rod
adjustment will compensate for this. See the section on Truss-Rod adjustments.
Sudden drops in local humidity are the most dangerous weather changes for a
banjo. The moisture content of the wood is forced down in a hurry and portions
of the wood shrink faster than others, causing cracks and opening joints. Watch
the weather reports and guard against dry spells. You should keep a case
humidifier in the case.
As you become adjusted to adjusting your banjo, you will find that a couple
of minutes now and then, making the needed adjustments, will improve the sound
immensely. General use and weather changes will cause your banjo to need a good
tune-up now and then. It is to your advantage to become proficient at making
adjustments from the start.
PROTECTING
AGAINST TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY
The easiest way to control the humidity is by storing a banjo in a hardshell
case or delta case when you're not playing it. Don't hang it on the wall, leave
it leaning against a couch, or set it next to a source of dry heat. You can
control the smaller body of air within a good case much more easily than the air
in the entire house.
A trick guitar players use to maintain the humidity in their guitar case is
to put half a potato in the string compartment, wedging the compartment open
slightly, so that the potato will give off a slight amount of moisture as it
dries out. The potato must be replaced periodically. A neater way is to place a
plastic soap container with holes drilled in it and a damp sponge inside it in
the string compartment in place of the potato; or purchase a humidifier for your
case. A case humidifier is best. Potatoes get a bit ripe and we don't recommend
them - but it makes a good story.
TRAVELING
WITH YOUR BANJO
If you plan to take your banjo with you on a trip, there are several
precautions to ensure its safe arrival at your destination.
The first and most basic precaution is to take it in a hardshell case or
delta case. This will protect it from the dents and bruises it might get in a
less substantial case. Both cases have their unique advantages.
The hardshell, traditional banjo case has a rigid exterior which protects
well against pressure on the instrument and fits into compact areas as well as a
banjo can, but if a banjo is dropped the heavy end usually hits first and the
neck may whiplash inside of the case. When the neck hits against the hard
exterior, the case can snap off the peghead or break the neck at the heel -
putting padding at the heel of the neck where it meets the resonator and on both
sides of the peghead can help protect this.
The Delta case is designed with a different concept in mind, it has a wood
frame and a plywood top and back. The inside of the walls of the case are filled
with foam so that the case will give and so it absorbs the shock. The banjo
doesn't take the impact. It also has pads built in to support the peghead and a
long neck support. Although it is slightly larger than a traditional case, it is
not heavier. The large exterior pocket gives you room for music books and it
also has a large inside storage compartment. It comes with a shoulder strap
which you can attach if you want to carry it over your shoulder. The cordura
exterior is water repellant and resistant to nicks.
If you are traveling by car, pack your banjo inside the car, not in the trunk
where it might cook or freeze. Keep it in the case, and cover the case with a
blanket so that the banjo isn't in direct sun.
Air travel is popular these days, and it is not uncommon for airlines to
break musical instruments. The most important factor to watch for to ensure that
your banjo arrives safely is to avoid conveyor belts. If your banjo gets knocked
off a conveyor, damage is guaranteed.
Most airlines in the United States automatically insure all your bags
together for $1200.00, if the value of your instrument and your other bags
exceeds this amount you may want to purchase additional insurance from a private
broker before your trip. Some airlines have had trouble with instrument breakage
and my not insure your banjo, they may request that you sign an insurance waiver
before they will check your banjo.
When you call for reservations, tell the airline's personnel that you are
bringing a banjo with you. Ask about the insurance and whether you can carry
your banjo onto the plane with you. If the plane is a large one (e.g., 747, 727,
L10, L11) there may be a closet large enough for it in the passenger section or
it may fit into the overhead compartment. If the plane is a smaller one, you may
have to buy a second seat at half fare.
In any case, whether you buy a half-fare seat, carry your banjo on with you,
or check it as baggage, tie your case closed, so the latches won't get bumped
open, and carry it to the steps of the plane with you. Whether your banjo gets
onto the plane with you or gets checked as baggage largely depends on the flight
attendant's assistance in finding room to store it in the passenger's section.
If there is no room for it, it will be hand-carried to the baggage compartment
from there. At this point, your only problem is to ensure that you get your
banjo back before it is put on a conveyor belt after you land. Get a flight
attendant's assistance in arranging this.
CAUTION
ABOUT DOING YOUR OWN ADJUSTMENTS
Before you start tinkering with your banjo, there is something you need to
think about. What happens if you break the truss-rod, a hanger-bolt or
something? This is not uncommon when someone completely new to banjo adjustments
starts tinkering with his/her banjo.
A reputable repairman usually guarantees his work and repairs any mistakes he
makes, or replaces the instrument if he breaks it. If you break it, however, you
will suffer the loss.
We recommend that before attempting any adjustments, you read this manual
carefully, and take your banjo to a reputable repairman. Watch him work on it
and ask questions. So that next time, you will be more familiar with how to do
the adjustments yourself.
TIGHTENING
THE HEAD
Your banjo should have a tight head in order to have its clearest tone. It
should not be too tight or the bass notes will be stifled.
Tighten the head with a 1/4" bracket wrench.
Tighten each hex nut just a fraction of a turn, going around the rim several
times, keeping the tension hoop level, until they are all tight. You may get to
a point where the hex nuts squeak when you tighten them, indicating the head is
getting very tight and you should be leery of tightening further, but you can
continue some past this point.
CHOOSING
A NEW HEAD
Banjo heads come in many sizes, in increments of about 1/16" from ten to
twelve inches in diameter. You can choose from clear head, translucent heads,
fiberskyn heads, heads frosted on the bottom side, ebony heads or reflective
gold and chrome heads. Different kinds of heads will affect the sound in
different ways.
An unfrosted head gives a thinner, crisper sound than a frosted head. You
many need to apply wax or bow rosin to the feet of the bridge on an unfrosted
head to reduce bridge slip.
In buying a new head you will also need to specify "high" or
"low" crown, which is the distance from the band of the head to the
flat surface of the head and determines how much the tension hoop has to pull
on. Deering banjos are designed to fit a high crown eleven inch head.
CHOOSING
NEW BANJO STRINGS
You may want to experiment with different gauges of strings to get the sound
you want. Heavier strings give a louder, more solid sound and don't vibrate as
much as light strings. If you are a strong picker, heavier strings, though
tougher on the fingers, will not be as prone to buzzes as light-gauge strings.
Buzzing is caused when a string vibrates against a fret. The harder you pick,
the more likely that a light-gauge string will vibrate enough to hit a fret. But
technique also comes into play here, if you get the string to vibrate parallel
with the fingerboard you can do amazing things without causing buzzes.
Good quality strings are essential to good tone. Don't sacrifice your banjo's
tone by trying to save a few pennies on strings.
Eventually you will learn to recognize when your strings have lost their
responsiveness. You can also see if you need new strings by running your finger
along the under-side of the string, checking for pits or grooves worn into the
strings by the frets.
Strings should be changed a minimum of every couple of months minimum if the
banjo is played in moderation, and once every couple of days if it is played a
lot. Old, worn, or corroded strings are a major cause of poor banjo sound.
HOW
TO THREAD STRINGS
The proper tuner for each string is shown. The string is passed through the
string hole near the top of the string post from the center of the peghead
toward the edge of the peghead.
The string is wound around the post in a direction away from the center of
the peghead. Pass the free end under the attached string so the first wind is
around the post above the string end.
The free end is then bent up and the string continues to be wound around the
tuner post in the same direction so the next wind goes under the string. This
way the string is clamped between two winds and will not slip. A string should
pass around the shaft at least two full winds to clamp it.
If you don't like getting pricked by short string ends, then before you clip
the string off take the end and pass it back through the tuner hole looping it
back on itself, pull it tight and clip the string next to the tuner post. The
string end will slip back inside the tuner post and will not have a stray end
sticking out.
THE
BANJO NECK
There are two schools of thought on banjo necks. Some think a banjo neck
should be should be completely flat to be correctly adjusted. We have applied a
new innovation to banjo neck building, actually derived from old-world guitar
craftsmen.
A Deering neck, correctly adjusted, has a slight curve in the fingerboard. A
curved fingerboard allows the strings to meet the frets at the same angle all
the way up the neck. This allows for lower action without buzzing than is
possible with a flat fingerboard.
** THE TRUSS-ROD TEST --- A Deering neck should have 1/64 of about .015 -
.020" clearance between the top of the 7th fret and the bottom of the
string when you capo the 1st fret and hold the string down at the 22nd fret at
the same time.
** THE ACTION TEST --- Measure the clearance between the top of the 22nd fret
and the bottom of the strings. Low action is about 1/8" clearance, any
lower is too low. Many professional pickers prefer their action at 1/4"
clearance.
Low action is not necessarily desirable because if you pick hard, low action
can cause buzzes by not providing enough space for the string vibrations.
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are clearer with higher action.
Neck adjustments are used mainly to adjust action and to correct buzzes, for
specifics see the Trouble Shooting Section.
THE
LOOSE NECK
A loose banjo neck will detract considerably from the sound of a banjo
because the instrument is no longer one solid unit and the vibrations are not
able to carry through the instrument properly.
A banjo neck can become loose due to carlessness in adjusting the co-ordinator
rods by allowing the rods to turn when adjusting the nuts. This is why a nail is
inserted in the hole in the rod to hold the rod from turning when adjusting the
nuts to change the neck angle on upper-line banjos.
It is possible for the extension nuts to work their way loose in time on the
Boston banjo. If the neck is loose, it simply needs to be tightened up. Use a
5/16" bracket wrench to tighten the extension nuts which hold the neck on
if needed.
To tighten the neck on a tone-ring banjo screw the co-ordinator rods tighter
to the hanger-bolts which attach the neck to the rim.
To do this you:
- Loosen the co-ordinator rod nuts on both rods.
- Make sure the neck is lined up properly with the tension hoop.
- Place a nail through the hole in each rod and turn it tighter to the neck.
- After the rods are again holding the neck on tight, adjust the coordinator
rod nuts to re-set the action. See Coordinator Rod Adjustment Section.
- Re-check the truss-rod adjustment.
BOSTON
BANJO - ACTION ADJUSTMENTS
The Deering Boston banjo has a slightly different neck adjustment because it
does need and so does not have coordinator rods.
The neck attaches to the rim through oblong holes so you can move the neck up
or down on the rim by loosening the extension nuts (inside the rim) and slide
the neck up or down. This adjustment can be used to lower the action by setting
the fingerboard slightly higher in relation to the rim. However, if the neck
already sits high in relation to the rim, you can move it down to raise the
action. But you must be sure that the fingerboard sits, at minimum, slightly
above the level of the tension hoop and head.
The Boston banjo rim is made of 3/16" thick steel which rings
beautifully and doesn't need stabilizing. It has no rod because you can't bend
the rim to adjust the neck anyway. Instead, you can use the oblong holes in the
rim for adjusting the neck up or down by loosening the extension nuts that hold
the neck on and simply sliding the neck up or down. This excellent design gives
you the adjustability you need along with the driving sound of a steel rim.
THE
BRIDGE
Bridge placement is critical in getting the best possible sound from your
banjo. There is a specific place on the head where the bridge should sit for
correct harmonic adjustment.
Your banjo was set up at the factory to take a 5/8" bridge and the neck
alignment is based on this bridge height. Do not try to adjust the action by
lowering the height of the bridge.
The size and design of the bridge will affect the sound of your banjo.
Lowering the bridge creates less pressure on the head and a sound loss results,
the banjo becomes less responsive and even muddy sounding.
Thinning the bridges reduces the weight and mass of the bridge to create a
thinner, crisper or less bass sound. Thinning the bridge too much can weaken the
bridge.
When curing buzzes in an old bridge or putting on a new bridge, take a V-file
and V-groove the bridge slots with an angle downward toward the tailpiece so
that the string makes contact right at the face of the bridge
HOW
TO SET THE BRIDGE
1. For an approximate setting, place the bridge perpendicular to the strings
- 26 3/16" from the nut, in spite of the 26 1/4" fret scale length,
because strings do not vibrate according to the exact calculations of physics.
2. To get the bridge set exactly, use harmonics:
On the first and fourth strings, play the 12th fret harmonic by lightly
touching the string above the 12th fret while plucking the string. This should
ring clearly, and is called "chimes."
Now play that string again while fretting the 12th fret right behind the
fretwire. These two notes should be the same if the bridge is in the correct
place.
If they aren't the same, move the bridge:
AWAY from the NECK if the fretted note is HIGHER than the harmonic note.
TOWARD the NECK if the fretted note is LOWER than the harmonic note.
It is important to set the bridge exactly. If the bridge is as little as
1/32" out of place a large amount of sound quality is lost.
TUNERS
Planetary pegs have a screw or a knob at the button end of the peg which is
for tightening the tuner. If a tuner slips out of tune, just tighten it so it
doesn't slip.
Be careful not to bump the fifth peg when handling your banjo or putting it
into the case. After several bumps the fifth peg can become loose and will
suddenly fall out. If this occurs just put it back in firmly. If it falls out
again, use "Tight Bond" to glue it back in.
Note - You are better off with a set of guitar tuners like the ones we put on
the Boston banjo than with a cheap set of imported planetary pegs. Guitar tuners
have a higher gear ratio (6-1) than planetary tuners (4-1).
Good quality imported planetary pegs cost about the same as domestic
planetary pegs. If you really want the look of straight through banjo tuners, it
is worth spending the money to get good ones.
IMPROVING
BANJO SOUND
A great sounding banjo is not an accident, it has been set up and tuned in,
just right.
The banjo, more than any other stringed instrument, must be correctly
adjusted to bring out its best tone. Each adjustment is important to the overall
sound of the banjo.
Miraculous results are obtainable when an unkept banjo is readjusted.
If your banjo doesn't have the magic it once had, you'll find this checklist
helpful in restoring its original life.
- New strings
- Hardware tight, no rattles
- Neck tight to the rim
- Head tight
- Tuner screws tight
- Bridge in place
- Tailpiece set
- Neck curve correct, truss rod
- Action set, coordinator rods
- Tuned to pitch
