At this point the banjo should be ready to play. There are still several adjustments or modification that can be done to improve the sound or playability of the banjo. Some of these are adjustments and some are replacements. First we should look at how the banjo plays.

The first concern here is string height or “action.” There are several ways to change the action on a banjo. I talked about the coordination rods earlier. These can be used to change the action but with the penalty of bending the rim out of round and loosing tone. Another bad way to do it is to loosen the neck and put some kind of shim between the neck and the rim. This is usually even worse than using the coordinator rods since it seriously reduces the contact between the neck and rim. Most of the overtones created by the neck will be gone giving the banjo a thinner sound.

Three factors are left that can be used to change a banjo's action. First of all you should check the curvature of the neck. If the neck is badly bowed the action will usually be higher than desirable. The remedy is to adjust the banjo's truss rod. This is something that makes many banjo players nervous. This is probably a good thing. There is always the possibility of damaging the neck by overtightening the rod. If you REALLY don't want to do this but the neck needs adjusting, take your banjo to a qualified repair person. If you do want to know how to do this adjustment read on.

Keeping the neck in proper alignment is crucial to being able to get the most out of the instrument. Many if not most banjos, guitars and mandolins need adjustment from season to season. In areas where it is necessary to run a furnace in winter dryness can cause the wood in the neck to contract. The neck and the fingerboard are usually different types of wood that react differently to changes in humidity adding to the problem. Typically this means that necks tend to bow backwards in the winter and upwards in the summer. This can either cause the strings to buzz or the banjo to be hard to fret.