Hey, I bought a banjo that I had spiked for my capo. It came with spike on 5th fret. Never seen this before. I have only spiked 7. , 8, 9 n the past
Anyone know the reason for this? Was a mistake made?
Thanks to whomever knows the answer
Spikes for capo
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Did you mean on the 6th fret?
THere is really no rule to how many spikes you can add on, I like having 4 all the way up to C note, on the 7,8,9,10 frets
Wherever they are placed it will not interfere with your playing
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I’ll second Frank’s reply. I’m also guessing you mean the 6th fret. It’s not a common spike position, but there aren’t any hard rules about where to put spikes, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
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If it’s at 6, my guess would be that it’s for playing in F# out of D position. I have spikes on my banjo at 7, 8, 9, and 10.
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It could be behind the fifth fret. Some people like to use a spike instead of a pip.
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My son has one banjo with spikes at 6 7 8 9 10 & 11 and the other banjo has a sliding 5th string capo (permanently attached) that covers 6 7 8 9 10 & 11. I’m guessing the 11 is unusual… but he used it for certain songs/singer that he used to play with often.
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Yes , behind fifth fret. I guess that’s what you could say. At the fifth fret is what I am calling that. What’s a pip?
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What is the purpose of a pip? By having a spike I could use this tool or not use it thus making it optional. Tone difference? If had been installed as a pip should I always leave it fretted(in place)
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This explains it better than I could:
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Like others here, I’ve noticed some banjos with pips (little round plastic or bone nuts) for the termination point on the drone string (immediately prior to entering the tuning peg) of various designs, and on others a railroad spike for the same purpose. This is true even new from the factory…for example a Deering Goodtime comes with the railroad spike at the fifth fret, but the Deering Sierra may have the plastic pip (or single string nut). The author in the article above prefers the spikes over the little nut.
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Got it, this is in a Deering banjo. White oak lotus. I have never had this spiked before so it looked odd. Deering reached out to explain.
Thanks to everyone for helping !
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My Sierra has a spike at the 5th. It obviously stays spiked all the time.
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Whoops, I was thinking 6th capo position (11th fret)… you can disregard my post.
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