INITIAL PICS 1-10

29532, matching numbers

Employs the same tone ring as Little Wonder
No pointy shoes, may have been changed out

Grover friction tuners
Modern no knot tailpiece
Standard neck hardware
If Tom wants modern tuners I will get some
As a rule his banjos are for playing, not looking at.

All hooksets are incorrect
 Most are brass hooked, and this means low tension, probably early 1900s SS Stewart style banjos
Those all need to go

Dowel is solid
I will pin the heel all the way to the fingerboard and reprofile the sides

And cover that when the pinning is completed

Its glued well, but shifted on them and I will reprofile the sides

Many cracks in the Pearwood fingerboard
Ill seal them off and re-level the fingerboard to pull some of the twist  and divots from it

The original wires have zero crown left upon them, hence the re-fret
I will use a more comfortable wire on it

Ready to level after I pull the bindings

Binding channels are super thin, as is the old binding
I will try to reuse it.

After a good bit of leveling, I still have some low spots, due to the twist

Thats all I can take away, now it is minimal

I like a little dye on the board before I start slotting for depth.
It doesn't dye as well after the glue gets in the fret channels

Fresh thin cyano to harden the slot edges to minimize chipouts.
This pearwood is totally dry, and will powder away when you sand or saw it.
Now with cracks sealed and oiled and the new frets having tight slots it should work OK

Regaining the depth
The small chipouts will be filled after fretting

Compressing the frets from nut to heel because it is already at a backbow

Hammered in over the heel..........

And as usual  Stars come flying out!
If I had a dollar for every time an inlay flew out from hammering in frets, I could buy lunch.
 

Old binding was reusable, but tedious.

Re-profileing the heel area
 

Heel cap repaired and ready for dye
Neck will be sealed with 2 coats of Shellac, before Lacquer phase.

Scuffed and ready for clear coats

I built up a set of steel hooks with matching short nuts that suit it better
I went with an inside frosted head, the fiberskyn is just to tubby on these, to me.
Also, this is not a 10-15/16" rim, this in a 10-3/4"

Leveling and recrowning new wire

Ready to assemble

After first assembly, it was obvious that the neckset was not that great from the factory and it was too low of a dowel set making the tone ring above the plane of the neck, a common occurence on Vega banjos thru time.
I had to pull the neck, take off some of the top side of the dowel so that the neck would lift upwards, and this got me alot better action and playability/tone

Original friction tuners function OK

I will tweak on it now a few days, and get it dialed in.
nice popping tone.

Only a vintage collar looks correct, I had 4 in my stock

Thanks for watching
Vinnie