andyboyman - Posted - 11/08/2011:  04:41:29

Good Morning Banjo Friends!

I've been frustrated with my tackhead minstrel banjo pretty much since I built it, but I don't want to add a tension hoop. The head just always stretches out after four or five months, and only right near where the neck joins the pot. The stretches are sort of horizontal lines and not major, but they don't seem to go back to tight even when the humidity goes down. Any suggestions for tightening it back up without taking the skin off and re-stretching it? I really want to play it for an upcoming antiques show. Last time I stretched it I tried wiping it with a little oil to try and keep it from absorbing moisture, but that doesn't seem to have helped either. It also only happens to my banjos with transparent calfskin, but not the ones with the white goat (?) skins. Thanks for any ideas. You folks are lifesavers.

--Andy

beegee - Posted - 11/08/2011:  05:31:47

The oil was probably not a good idea, as it relaxes the fibers of the skin. I think the only solution would be to replace the skin with a quality skin. You could try applying heat from a hair dryer or heat lamp to temporarily relieve the condition just before a performance.

Bart McNeil - Posted - 11/08/2011:  05:56:22

I am wondering if the problem relates to the skin head drying as it was being secured to the goard and/or on the system you used for doing the installation and tacking. I would guess that the pattern of loosening you describe may relate to the installation of the skin head... Shrinking of skin heads (or expanding) should never be directional as you describe, but should be uniform... So my guess is that the problem is one of technique in installing the skin head.

If you maintained the moisture in the head during installation and tacked it in a star pattern that should not have happened... However if you installed it starting at one point and worked your way around it that might account for your problem. In any case the only solution would be to re-install the head. I doubt that you are going to be able to get around that.

Fathand - Posted - 11/08/2011:  06:49:48

With my gourd Banjo, I made the head wet with  water until it was quite saggy, then dried it with a hand held hair dryer.  Big improvement.

Jonnycake White - Posted - 11/08/2011:  09:02:47

The location of the looseness near the neck heel raised a red flag in my brain. Have you checked that your rim or gourd - whatever the skin is tacked to - is stable? Can it be that string tension is causing some kind of physical collapse of the rim that shows up as a looseness in the head in that area? 

By "horizontal" wrinkles do you mean perpendicular to the neck or parallel to it?

Edited by - Jonnycake White on 11/08/2011 09:04:32

csbdr - Posted - 11/08/2011:  12:02:46

quote:

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Originally posted by Fathand

With my gourd Banjo, I made the head wet with  water until it was quite saggy, then dried it with a hand held hair dryer.  Big improvement.

 

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 I've done similar with a Sioux sweat lodge drum I own. In that case I oiled the skin, then held it over the heat of a gas stove (carefully!  don't want to split the skin)  i don't know if it would work in your case, but did wonders for the drum head.

andyboyman - Posted - 11/09/2011:  15:29:15

It is possible that the rim has changed shape under string tension and that is causing the looseness in the skin. The wrinkles are parallel to the neck. It has a simple dowel stick that goes through a 2ply 1/2 inch poplar rim but nothing to keep the rim shape, so that is probably the issue.

Jonnycake White - Posted - 11/10/2011:  10:03:33

To me, wrinkles parallel to the neck near the heel seem to indicate a distortion in the rim in that area due to skin tension. You should check if the bottom of the rim lies flat on a table top. If not, can you press down on the sides of the rim and will that smooth out the wrinkles? That would mean the rim needs to be reinforced somehow in the area where the hole was drilled for the dowel stick to pass through.

Pictures of the problem would help us make a better diagnosis.