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Restoration #8 - Windsor Popular No. 5

I received this banjo for repair and set-up at the end of 2022, and completed the work at the end of February 2023.

This is an old Winsdor zither banjo that's obviously seen a lot of play over the years, as the worn fretboard can attest. It had picked up a number of wounds over its life, and was brought to me for a set of specific repairs. The neck is a little bowed, meaning the action is quite high (but not impossibly so), but there was little to be done on that front. 

 

Easier to address were chips to the fretboard and missing inlay, tears on the pot veneer, damage around the heel and the join between the neck and the pot. It was in need of a new skin and bridge, and had lost a couple of tension bolts along the way. 
 

I made the following repairs:

- Filling fretboard holes with new matching wood

- Making and fitting a replacement piece for missing mother of pearl inlay

- Filling cracks and reinforcing neck-pot join

- Replacing chipped wood and lost binding on the heel cap

- Gluing and re-finishing torn veneer on either side of the pot

And I did a general set-up service, including: 

- Cleaning the tensioners

- Cleaning and oiling the fretboard

- Sourcing replacements for 4 missing tensioning bolts
- Fitting a new skin

- Fitting a new bridge
- Putting on new strings

Before photos:
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