Rizo - Posted - 06/22/2012:  09:50:23

About a month ago, I installed a skin head for the first time on one of my banjos. It was dyed head from the late Bill Miller that his daughter (I believe) shipped out.  I loved the tone but wasn't happy with the crown of the head. Even so, so took it to a cook out in WV one night and was playing. As the night got more muggy the head got soggy and the bridge SANK. The volume was nonexistent and I think I wound out playing one of my fretless one instead. Anyway, here's a pic of the head. I should point out, this pic is in direct sunlight so the color is more intense than it really looks in normal lighting (matches my fiddler's hair, and my occasional guitar player's too, BTW... pretty funny):

I re-wetted the head this week and got the crown height about where I wanted it. It lost a little dye in the process, mostly in the center of the head, so some of the darker splotches there got washed out, but I'm not overly concerned with that. Once it dried overnight, I took the head and sprayed it with this stuff:

amazon.com/True-Value-Company-...000BZX1Q4

amazon.com/True-Value-Company-...000BZX1Q4

The link is to a 6-pack of the stuff from Amazon, but I bought a single can for about 5 bucks at the local Tru-Value hardware. It was next to the deck sealant. It says on the can that it can be used on leather. When I read that, I had to try it, right? Well the bad news is that my banjo head smells vaguely of paint thinner, and now I wonder what toxic petrochemicals my arm is rubbing on, although I'm thinking the really volatile stuff would evaporate and the stuff left behind would dry and not rub off too much.

But now the good news! Well, the good news is that it sounds great.The tone changed a little, it's a little more ringing and a little less woody sounding, but it's a very nice old timey tone AND it's hardly affected by humidity at all now. To test it, I took it from the low humidity air-conditioned house, to outside where it's muggy as all get out and repeated this process several times. I played it for maybe a half hour each time and yes, I had to retune, but not to an extreme. Overall, the tuning is much more stable than it was before, so I'm pretty happy.

Just thought I'd share for those that might benefit.

Edited by - Rizo on 06/22/2012 09:51:20

timmo_1949 - Posted - 06/22/2012:  16:01:43

Thanks for sharing that tip.  I will give it a try.

By the way, it is not available in parts of California because of the VOCs (volatile organic compounds).  That is probably the compressed propellant but I don't know that for sure.  I wonder if it has silicon in it?

Tim Smith

savethebanjos.com