Quote:
Originally Posted by amyFB
my buddy that swapped out the head advised me that a dowel stick would help the neck straighten out above the 5th fret.
|
You know there's already a dowel stick in there - its the square black wooden dowel coming out of the base of the neck. The dowel stick cannot "straighten" a neck - it only sets the action. You have no truss rod on these old timers so there is no straightening the neck short of remove and plane the fretboard and/or neck (or just replace the neck).
My guess is what you really mean is the action is too high as you go up the neck. Modern banjos use coordinating rods which can adjust the action. To change the action on a dowel stick banjo you either re-plane the neck heel or shim the neck-to-pot contact point. I went for a shim when I did mine. In either case you have to pull the tailpiece and move the point where the dowel stick connects to the rim. This requires drilling a new hole in the rim, dowel stick or both (as in my Stahl's case).