Golden Gate P-216 Fiddle Peghead 5-String Banjo Neck - Bella Voce

I give this Banjo Neck 5 stars, for the price it is great, I will add Mother of pearl to the frets, and an overlay of Rosewood and Mother of pearl to the Peg Head. The finish with Teak Oil, and N C Instrument Lacquer (15 coats the buff) It is solid, straight, with a Truss Rod.For those who can do all that is required, it's a great buy.

Very basic simple neck, but it works fine. The finishing is pretty straight forward and it is not too difficult to fit the heel to the pot if you know what you are doing. It is not cut for a flange, has a narrow fingerboard and the neck is a little thick. It is a very nice neck for a basic open back banjo. The nut and 5th string pip are plastic. However, in my opinion for the price you can't do better.Don't forget, it is unfinished so you will need to add the tuners and truss rod cover. Also, the frets need to be crowned and you need to sand and finish the wood. I suggest Tru Oil as that worked great for me. A three ounce bottle produced 15 coats.

I have ordered 3 of these banjo necks in the past several months. 2 of the 3 had dents and scratches in the head and since the veneer is so thin, could not be sanded out. The last one I received had the truss rod sticking 4 inches out of the head and grease all over the headstock veneer from the truss rod. I decided to make my own veneer overlay to cover, since I couldn't get all the grease from the truss rod off of the head. Also, one of the pegholes had chipped out on the back of the headstock when originally drilled for tuners. The chip was glued back in, but is still noticeable and won't be covered by the tuners. Considered sending this last one back, but decided to just work through the issues and avoid the hastle. Truss rod, after being re-inserted in the neck, did tighten with half a turn. Each of the 3 necks had excess glue around the nut that had to be scrapped off next to the veneer. All-in-all a good value for the price, but be prepared to manage through some of these issues. The neck is a bit thicker than I like, but after building the banjo and playing it for several days, I have adjusted to the thicker profile.

Do not buy this product. This banjo neck is misrepresented in the ad. It does not have a rosewood overlay and it does not have a bone nut. The ad says it is "luthier quality", but is really a factory second at best. It is both twisted and warped severely. The peghead is even twisted to one side. Some of the frets, even though glued in, are only partially seated. Yet another wasted return shipping fee.

I have purchased three of these necks and have been very pleased with the quality. They are NOT finished necks and may require some sanding, finishing, and fret dressing. A light sanding, a coat or two of sanding sealer and a water-based finish works great. You may have to file and dress the ends of some frets but it is about 15 minutes of work on average. I have not had to level or crown any frets. The neck attaches to the body with two threaded bolts. They are metric size so measure before you try to force a 1/4” nut on them!! The set of tuners that Amazon recommends work pretty well. The tuner hole for the 5th string tuner is slightly undersized and you will have to drill it to get the tuner to fit. Not hard but it does require five minutes of work. Will keep buying them for my banjo projects.

Workable if you don't mind putting a few hours into it and know what you're doing. Expect to reseat and level the frets, and install a new nut.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of this neck. Workmanship was pretty good, with only a few finish imperfections on the fingerboard. Contrary to the description, there is no rosewood overlay on the peg head. Frets were installed well with no sharp or jagged edges. Two lag screws were already installed in the heel, but there was no hardware, like nuts and washers, for them. For the price I think this is a good deal, as banjo necks can cost hundreds of dollars.Since writing my review I've completed putting this neck on my 1920s tenor banjo pot. I had to remove the lag screws and fill their holes because they didn't match the location for my antique pot. The new neck plays well, and the banjo sounds great. Fretting seems to be right on, and I didn't have the sharp edges another reviewer had. Sanding was minimal to ready the neck for staining. I used a stain-varnish combination from Min-wax that matched my almost 100 year old pot pretty well. All in all, I am pleased with the quality of this neck.

Good value for the price. The top peg head holes were in the wrong place. I filled them and redrilled in a better spot. The lag screws for the rim mount were not parallel. One hole had to be filled and redrilled. If you are willing to do a little rework it's still a good deal. It would have been better if the headstock was not drilled and the lag screws were not installed.