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mbuk06 - Posted - 05/10/2016: 04:57:01
Right now I'm 11 days into the settling-in period for a new skin head. Here in Somerset despite our grey, moisture filled skies we don't have a humid climate, and winter heating is shut down so there are few 'outside' factors. Just the skin and applied tension. As the days have passed I've become fascinated at how this process even involves the appearance of the skin changing. A pore and pock-marked familiar face with a new feature that wasn't there yesterday. And the smell; no plastic head has that farm odour reminiscent of beast. Even after more than a week I'm finding that 24 hours after the last incremental tightening and some hard playing, next morning there is a the slightest hint of string buzz (usually from the bass string) and I need to apply the socket wrench again. Round the rim sequentially like a clock. Turning one flat at a time, or less depending on 'feel'. There is still a 1/4" clearance below the top of the rim so no problem. I'm tightening slowly and patiently. Patience, feel and listening is the key. That wonderful tone is now coming in...
I love this process. It is simultaneously sensual and ancient. Hard to imagine how any other aspect of the banjo imparts that sense of it's 'live' and changing essence quite so directly. Anyone else feel the same?
Lyndon Smith - Posted - 05/10/2016: 05:59:39
Hi Mike, I too love skin heads for both look and sound. I fitted this calf skin yesterday and trimmed it today. I've misplaced my drum dial but it sounds about the right tension. I have to say, you are very patient, 11 days adjusting...
This calf skin is the most transparent that I have seen, it only has subtle markings on it.
I once read on Babbling Brooks (Brooks Marsten's blog) about his calf skin tightening technique, it was very interesting and he says he never has to adjust his heads...
existential_banjo - Posted - 05/10/2016: 06:35:05
Depending on the cost of your skin head, I wouldn't hesitate to tighten the hide tight. I think that they will take a lot of tension. I only paid $10.00 for my goat skin head and mounted it myself. If it tears, I'm not out much money. By the same token, my last hide head has turned into a "low crown" affair and isn't working out well. I guess it's back to Elderly and try another one.
As a side bar, Remo d Belli, the inventor of the Weather King drum/banjo head in 1957, died last week.
mijknahs - Posted - 05/10/2016: 09:06:03
I love this quote - "farm odour reminiscent of beast".
mbuk06 - Posted - 05/10/2016: 15:19:12
I've soaked and stretched some fine calf skins on vintage banjos. The one I'm currently settling in is pre-stretched by John Balch for my fretted Mac Traynham banjo. I've fitted several superb quality skins from John before and with those I've found that usually 3-5 days and most of the stretch is taken up. This one has more stretch and as a result is requiring more care and close attention, but that's the delight of natural materials. No two skins sound or behave exactly the same. Got it up around the tension I like again this evening and it is now sounding better and better. The whole process is like an aural hunting trip; a slow movement into position, at first there's nothing, no sign - but we notice everything, hyper-vigilent, and trusting our instinct and experience we patiently wait for the lurking tone animal we know will eventually show itself. And when it does it is simultaneously surprising, astoundingly impressive and unforgettable
Edited by - mbuk06 on 05/10/2016 15:22:02
bartmcneil - Posted - 05/11/2016: 04:17:09
"farm odor reminiscent of beast"
Whew, for a minute I thought you were speaking of my girlfriend.
trapdoor2 - Posted - 05/11/2016: 12:29:48
I'm wondering about all of this (which sounds lovely, btw). I've put on probably a good dozen skins and never did anything but slap it on, wait for it to dry and then crank it down till it spoke.
No smells, no 'process', no stretch-relax-stretch, no waiting or deliberating or 'settling in'. I've only ever had to revisit a skin once...and that is because it broke. I replaced it and was up and running 24hrs later.
I'm serious. The skin I put on my first Stewart is still on there after 35 yrs...so's the one I installed on a Banjeaurine 6 mo ago. Neither of them has ever been touched once I got them 'gutentite'...which took probably less than an hour after the skin was well and truly dry (24hrs in the air-conditioned house). I like calfskin quite tight...you could rollerskate on most of my Stewarts.
I must have had my esthetic conscious removed with my tonsils when I was a kid. 
mbuk06 - Posted - 05/11/2016: 16:01:22
Marc, I don't think your experience is unusual and it highlights the range of difference alluded to above. I too have stretched skins that have settled pretty much after drying and a first crank up to playable tension. They were thin calf skin that had their distinctive animal odour scoured away by bleaching. Compare that to a skin that still has bristle on the back; cut and scraped but untouched by leeching chemicals. Still unmistakably to eyes and nose a skin that once protected and exuded life. Difference.
Given that the end goal, whatever the length of the settling period, is to pick and enjoy the tone of a skin head quick, and uncomplicated is job well done. But the longer process on skins that need more adjustment does draw us in; it demands more of our attention but it also creates a closer connection and focus. That fascinates me and prompted my post. Day 12 and the skin itself has opened out visually in sync with the arrival of sweet tone so that what was in unstretched form a flat opaque appearance has now 'bloomed' and a beautiful patterning and individuality has emerged.
Edited by - mbuk06 on 05/11/2016 16:04:26
Lyndon Smith - Posted - 05/12/2016: 00:57:37
Please can we see some pictures...
mbuk06 - Posted - 05/12/2016: 01:34:56
My intention is for this thread to be a prompt to our imagination and our less tangible relationship to one aspect of the banjo rather than as a 'capture'. The deliberate choice of the word 'feel' is the clue in my first post; that the specific can also be a universal, so it's not about my banjo at all.
So much of social media is individual 'capture' and 'display'. Not a meaningful engagement. Simply replicating that one-way process by uploading a 2-dimensional photo would seem to be out of place on this thread.
I can upload an image to up to my homepage if you have a burning desire to see. But to my mind that is to view the corpse of a loved one when we already have the essence within us and what is permanent and of value. 
Edited by - mbuk06 on 05/12/2016 01:38:50
Lyndon Smith - Posted - 05/12/2016: 01:50:39
quote:
Originally posted by mbuk06
I can upload an image to up to my homepage if you have a burning desire to see.
That would be nice...
trapdoor2 - Posted - 05/12/2016: 07:44:31
quote:
Originally posted by mbuk06
My intention is for this thread to be a prompt to our imagination and our less tangible relationship to one aspect of the banjo rather than as a 'capture'. The deliberate choice of the word 'feel' is the clue in my first post; that the specific can also be a universal, so it's not about my banjo at all.
So much of social media is individual 'capture' and 'display'. Not a meaningful engagement. Simply replicating that one-way process by uploading a 2-dimensional photo would seem to be out of place on this thread.
I can upload an image to up to my homepage if you have a burning desire to see. But to my mind that is to view the corpse of a loved one when we already have the essence within us and what is permanent and of value.
Thankfully, we don't have 'smellavision'...yet. 
You're doing a good job with your descriptions, Mike. I'm looking forward to day 10950..."the head is worn nearly thru and the combination of musty/odure/decomposition smells is now gaining strength. Time for this head to join the choir invisible."
Frettful - Posted - 06/05/2016: 18:53:56
Mike, I love your comments on the poetry of skin heads. When I decided to swap mylar for natural skin, what struck me the most was the contrast between the homogeneous plastic medium and the heterogeneous natural medium, not just in tone, but in look and feel. I'll never be bored again because every day is a new day. Here in New England where Bermuda High weather brings the humidity up and Canadian highs bring it back down (with some interesting weather in between), the tone of the head is different every day and I just have to play the kind of music appropriate for the tone - Old Time when it's humid and more Blue Grassy when it's dry.
banjered - Posted - 06/05/2016: 19:21:47
I put a hide head on a Stewart banjo but I didn't care for the sound, kind of dead/thuddy. I put it in a case and forgot about it for a couple of months and when I tried it out again it sounded pretty good. The "settling" process or my ears? Banjered
bartmcneil - Posted - 06/06/2016: 06:18:13
...."settling process" or my ears?
Likely both. A skin head will stretch and shrink with humidity changes. The wood will also expand and contract with humidity changes. A plastic (Mylar) head will remain stable during humidity changes.
From personal experience I also know that my hearing changes with humidity changes, just as a skin head changes.
I suspect that "thuddyness" is the nature of a skin head not stretched tight enough. And that, of course is why the Banjo has all those tuners to fine tune the banjo for all humidity conditions.
