My Banjo - A Gold Tone BC-350

So this is a picture of my banjo, a Gold Tone BC-350. The BC is for Bob Carlin. It's got a great, full sound (which is a polite way of saying it's kinda loud). The pot's on the bigger side, I believe it's 11 inches (I can't find a tape measure, otherwise I'd make sure). Its sound qualities are its best qualities, but there are some slightly annoying aspects to it. For one, the first string is too close to the edge of the fingerboard, which you can see pretty well in this picture. The groove in the nut for this string is right up next to the edge, as you can see below.

That makes it far too easy to pull that string off the fingerboard entirely, which does not make for a good sound! The action is also a bit too high when you go up the neck. That may be able to be fixed - I need to take it to a shop. But this is my only banjo. If I take it in, I'll be forced to fart around on the mandolin that I play atrociously. So I haven't taken it in.

The only other issue I've had is that I get a lot of overtones if I don't make a real effort to dampen the strings. I used to just keep a piece of felt under the strings right at the tailpiece (in addition to the bandana in the back), but I was still getting tones, so I eventually wrapped that piece of cloth around the strings below the bridge. It looks wierd, but it gives me the sound I want! You may notice something shiny on the left side of the pot - that's packing tape. I have nickle poisoning. If I play in short sleeves for any length of time, my skin breaks out in a rash where it touches the metal. So I've covered the metal in packing tape. Problem solved!