Mike Floorstand - Posted - 07/04/2014:  15:03:00

I fitted a skin head onto my banjo recently, it's the fourth or fifth time I've made my own skin head and naively thought I was becoming quite proficient ...

I made it with a relatively low crown to allow plenty of scope for tightening as needed, but it seems not enough. I think the issue is hot and humid weather in the UK at the moment, causing the head to absorb moisture and keep stretching.. So in order to keep the head to a nice tension, I'm having to tighten it to the point where the flesh hoop is going to push down against the neck join.

So the question is, is there a method of reducing the crown again once the head is made, or do I need to start again?

Or else put a plastic head on until the humid weather returns!

Thanks

Edited by - Mike Floorstand on 07/04/2014 15:03:49

westsideryan - Posted - 07/04/2014:  15:15:39

From my limited experience I am thinking that you would have to start over.  John Balch would be a good person to ask.  Did you treat the head with any sort of waterproofing?

Mike Floorstand - Posted - 07/04/2014:  15:32:35

No unfortunately I didn't try waterproofing it. Though, I had assumed that would only delay the absorption of moisture, to prevent rapid changes in head tension say during a gig? Would it have helped helped the current situation which I think is brought about by having to tighten head incrementally over a few weeks?

If this could have helped then a possible solution might be to wait for drier weather (or try to dry out the head artificially with a lightbulb or something), then apply waterproofer before humidity can take effect?

ponty - Posted - 07/04/2014:  15:45:37

Mmmm..Dont worry about the hot and humid conditions in the UK, it wont last more than a day or two!!

I live with 90% humidity, and followed advice from the pros on this site and sprayed the head (off the banjo) with

'water proofer' available from Millets, Cotswold outdoor, etc. It actually works well. I have 2 skin banjos and don't really have too much problems

with them.

Fathand - Posted - 07/05/2014:  07:08:44

The head can be re-soaked and crown lowered if you have enough skin left to get a hold of. If not you can save that one for another banjo, maybe a smaller one like a uke.

Dry the head well with a hairdryer, then spray with some aerosol like they use on leather jackets to make them water repellent. It will help with the humidity.

Do you have room to deepen your neck notch?

carlb - Posted - 07/05/2014:  07:36:25

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mike Floorstand

I made it with a relatively low crown to allow plenty of scope for tightening as needed, but it seems not enough. I think the issue is hot and humid weather in the UK at the moment, causing the head to absorb moisture and keep stretching.. So in order to keep the head to a nice tension, I'm having to tighten it to the point where the flesh hoop is going to push down against the neck joint.

So the question is, is there a method of reducing the crown again once the head is made, or do I need to start again?

---

If the hoop is pushing against the neck joint, then I think you need to start again. If you haven't already cut off the excess that it's no problem to start again; if you have cut off the excess, I'm afraid that you're out of luck because I don't think you'd have enough excess to remount the skin.

If you had some space and the tension hoop was below the skin, then that's another story and I did solve that problem as I described in another topic posting <banjohangout.org/topic/287115/#3618801>.

Mike Floorstand - Posted - 07/05/2014:  14:44:27

Ponty - yes it will be cold and humid before very long! Appreciate the white rose in your avatar, myself and the banjo both born in God's own country as it happens (Rotherham and Leeds respectively).

Fathand - thanks for the hairdrier suggestion, I had heard of using a lightbulb but a hairdrier seems a bit safer! There probably is enough space to deepen the neck notch but it's a newly made banjo and I don't want to go hacking into it for the sake of another head.

Carlb - yes the excess was cut off weeks ago. The problem is with touching the neck joint, not just a low tension hoop (I did see your other post on raising that, neat trick!). It's not quite touching the neck notch at the moment but it does when I get the tension where I'd like, so if the head keeps stretching I've no room for manoeuvre.

I'll have a go with a hairdrier and waterproofer, if that fails start again.

cheers .

Edited by - Mike Floorstand on 07/05/2014 14:45:21