Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

5th string spikes

#21

Well that would be Grammy Award winner Charlie Cushman of The Earls Of Leicester of course. Located just north of Nashville, his specialty is conversions and setups of pre-war Gibsons, however he also works on other models, old and new as well.

Ben referred me to him last year. If you’re ever in need of his services and are in the Nashville area, look him up, he’s a nice fellow, the tops.

Here’s his luthier page on FB -https://www.facebook.com/CushmanBanjoSetUp
Here’s a fun video of him playing with Noam Pikelny - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vpAJAzCOJM
Here he is channeling Earl Scruggs at the caverns - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVWgs4NhBE

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#22

So, I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say that we don’t let Deering send us banjos with spikes already installed :wink:

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#23

Hmmmm… Interesting… :thinking:

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#24

O.K. Final report.
First, I measured the angle of attack on the install video and it came out 25 degrees from vertical (or 115 degrees measured from the fret). I set up my drill press attachment at 25 degrees (measured with a digital angle meter). I didn’t bother with pilot holes as I had better control with the drill press.

Came out O.K. for me. No fret buzz. It holds the string down where I want it.

I would say compared with the sliding 5th string capo that was on it the tone of the string is definitely brighter.

This was done on my ancient Gibson long neck. On my fancy pants banjo I’ll continue to use the strum capo. It works good enough for me.

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