Follow-up: Today I got out the allen wrench and screwdriver and adjusted the Samick's neck, cranking it back a little. If you've read my article on that (and my other banjos and guitars etc.), you may recall that the neck was a TINY bit concave between the nut and the fifth fret. Not enough to cause any problems, but I was hoping that if I had a higher bridge, I could crank it back a little farther without creating fret buzz somewhere further down the neck. Turns out I could. I had used the turnbuckle on the single coordinator rod to bring the neck back overall when I first installed the bridge. Today, I used the neck adjustment rod to crank the neck back. Now it's straighter. But there was a tiny bit of fret buzz at the first fret. So I loosened the turnbuckle a turn, and the fret buzz disappeared. I may have to tweak it again in a couple days, but for now the action on this is the best it's ever been.
That said, it may be the outrageous humidity, but I DO feel that the banjo is a bit less "bright" and responsive than it usually is. Maybe the folks that thought the bridge was too bulky were right. That said, I ran through songs in G, D and A, and all of them sounded better than they had before. So it's a trade-off I can live with for now. I came close to blistering my fingertips today, trying different things, so that's the end of my report for now.
