christian0oo - Posted - 08/17/2012:  14:24:51

can you stain a normal remo head? 

I'd like a non skin head that I could stain. You know like to get the look of like Jason Romeros banjo heads. Is that possible? If so are there many methods?

kirbonite - Posted - 08/17/2012:  16:03:18

I haven't tried this yet.. but I'm sure you will get responses..  Renaissance heads are what he uses I believe.. the fiber nature of them would lend themselves to that..   A frosted head is like a primed canvas.. You could paint it but the paint would be on top of the head and not absorbed into it like a Renaissance..

let me know.. I plan on doing one too.

So far coffee is the only stain I have..

christian0oo - Posted - 08/17/2012:  16:13:03

yeah I was thinking about doing something with coffee too lol 

Oldpiper - Posted - 08/17/2012:  16:53:28

If you wander around the below site, you can find some great examples of painting banjo heads, mainly on the inside to prevent wear.

theirishtenorbanjo.ning.com

Dan Drabek - Posted - 08/17/2012:  17:13:14

Now that's interesting. Over the years, I've usually worked to keep my banjo heads white. Never tried to stain them purposely, but tastes change, and I do like the looks of Romero's goat skin heads.

Back in the '60's, myself and many other banjo players were looking for the brightest, sharpest sound from our banjo. That was during a period when super-bright sounding banjos were in vogue, and before you could buy clear banjo heads. To brighten up our banjos, we would tighten the heads to near-breaking, thin our bridges, crank down the tailpieces, and laboriously rub-down the frosted Remo heads with lacquer thinner, which would eventually remove the frosting and leave us with transluscent smooth heads. It would brighten up the banjo sound noticeably. Since lacquer thinner removed the coating, It might follow that a thinned-down tinted lacquer would penetrate the surface and permanently color a frosted head. If I were to attempt it, I would add lacquer thinner and analine dye to nitrocellulose lacquer to get a water- thin stain, and rub it with a lightly moistened cloth into the head to get some variegated color transfered into the coating. I'd probably let it dry and then repeat it with several shades of antique gold and brown to get some color variation according to my taste. Since we're talking lacquer thinner here, I might want to remove the head from the banjo before applying.

Now, I've never actually done this, and it's pure speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did the job. If you don't like the result, heads are pretty cheap to replace.



DD

Edited by - Dan Drabek on 08/17/2012 17:18:48

kmwaters - Posted - 08/17/2012:  17:26:01

Adding mass via stain would logically result in some softening of the sound.

christian0oo - Posted - 08/17/2012:  17:39:28

I'm not opposed to the softening of the sound, I kinda like that actually

and Dan, that sounds pretty spot on! I think you might be right! I'm going home to visit in a few days and I've got an old remo head laying around somewhere in my closet so I'll try to give it a try and if I get around to it I'll let you know how it works!