2000s Stone Banjo Co 5-String Banjo Half-Fretless Conversion

A customer dropped this banjo off for a half-fretless conversion a long time back. It took me a bit of searching, but I did manage to find scrap-size brass (rather than huge sheets) on eBay in just the same thickness as the frets themselves. After much fussing (it turns-out to be more difficult than it might seem to cut brass to fit a banjo that's already made -- fitting a wood veneer to this would have been really quick in comparison), I managed to get it epoxied onto the neck without much trouble.

The owner mentioned he wanted the fretless portion "to the 7th fret" -- but my mind twisted this to read as a clean note at the 7th fret, so it's really fretless to a little beyond the 6th. Sliding past the 6th area gives a natural slide up to a clean 7th-fret note, however, so... it's useful! He was happy with it, thankfully, and he plays like a monster, so he had the technique down pat before he even touched it.

The banjo itself is quite nice and understated. West Virginia's Stone Banjo Co. prides itself on quality and affordability, and this has both. It has a cherry neck and cherry block-rim with some sort of wooden tonering at the top of it, shaped a little like a Mastertone ring. The hardware is all simple and off-the-shelf, but rugged. The frets and fret slots are nicely recessed in the neck so while there's no binding, the neck "acts" as if it has binding. The tuners are all geared and, while plain and have what I think of as "undesirable" buttons, work well. I had to refit the 5th peg while I was working on the board.

My one complaint with the instrument is its silly neck brace. When I was setting it up post-work, I made it redundant by bolting the neck behind it (a much more secure connection), though it still tensions-up as normal to hide my modification. The brace itself (a wooden screwed-down adjuster plate) is delaminating and not durable enough for the job, but it is "traditional." I'll never understand why modern old-time banjo makers don't just use Gibson coordinator rod setups, but then again, now that we have things like Perfection Pegs, I also don't understand why fiddles still use friction pegs, either...

It's now setup with Aquila Nylgut strings and sounding grand.

Scale length: 26 1/8"

Nut width: 1 1/4"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/16"

String spacing at bridge: 1 3/4"

Head diameter: 11"

Rim depth: 2 3/4"

Rim material: block cherry

Neck wood: cherry (w/walnut center-strip?)

Fretboard wood: maple

Bridge: Grover ebony/maple

Neck feel: medium-big C/U-shape, flat board