Its 100% all setup.

goat skin head, single foot bridge and minimal tailpiece pressure will get you there just fine

Check out Nechville Banjos.  You can get those puppies so warm, you'd swear you were in Miami.

Check out the Deering banjos with a granadillo tone ring. And the right head can make a difference. Goatskin or a plastic fiberskin head can make a difference. I also use a wooden banjo mute when I want a nice mellow sound

I had a Deering Vega Bluegrass Wonder that was so warm and mellow, I sold it. Back then I was looking for a lightweight bluegrass banjo that would work in jams and the band… That wasn’t it for sure. I kind of wish I would have kept it, I could appreciate it now.

Agreement here that setup has a lot to do with tone. For warmth, maybe a slightly thicker/heavier bridge. Fiberskyn head rather than conventional mylar. And very likely a wood tone ring as already suggested. But I've heard warmth from plenty of metal tone ring banjos, so that goes back to setup. I don't think it's maker.

If a banjo can peel the paint off the walls, I assume that means it's really hot, which would be even warmer than a warm banjo. That would mean a banjo with warm tone is inherently cooler than a banjo that can peel paint off the walls. And who doesn't want to be a bit cooler?

Consider that the opposite of a warm banjo is generally called a dry banjo. Given that wet is the opposite of dry, does that mean that a banjo with mellow tone is also wet?

A warm wet banjo: The old time players dream, as we all know.

Drip….Drip….Drip…

If I played a warm (wet) banjo in a dusty campsite, would it result in muddy tone?

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Originally posted by calicoplayer

Check out the Deering banjos with a granadillo tone ring. And the right head can make a difference. Goatskin or a plastic fiberskin head can make a difference. I also use a wooden banjo mute when I want a nice mellow sound

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Where did you get your banjo mute?

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Originally posted by Old Hickory

Agreement here that setup has a lot to do with tone. For warmth, maybe a slightly thicker/heavier bridge. Fiberskyn head rather than conventional mylar. And very likely a wood tone ring as already suggested. But I've heard warmth from plenty of metal tone ring banjos, so that goes back to setup. I don't think it's maker.

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The Romeros that I referred to have bronze tone rings. 

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Originally posted by Laurence Diehl

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Originally posted by calicoplayer

Check out the Deering banjos with a granadillo tone ring. And the right head can make a difference. Goatskin or a plastic fiberskin head can make a difference. I also use a wooden banjo mute when I want a nice mellow sound

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Where did you get your banjo mute?   It's a homemade mute, just a piece of hardwood with a longitudinal saw cut and then crosscuts to accommodate the strings.  Any decent woodworker or luthier should be able to conjure one up in a few minutes.  Any hardwood should work well:  ebony, maple, rosewood, granadillo, etc.  Years ago an ebony mute was commercially available, but I haven't seen it advertised for decades; hence the homemade mute

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Originally posted by calicoplayer

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Originally posted by Laurence Diehl

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Originally posted by calicoplayer

Check out the Deering banjos with a granadillo tone ring. And the right head can make a difference. Goatskin or a plastic fiberskin head can make a difference. I also use a wooden banjo mute when I want a nice mellow sound

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Where did you get your banjo mute?   It's a homemade mute, just a piece of hardwood with a longitudinal saw cut and then crosscuts to accommodate the strings.  Any decent woodworker or luthier should be able to conjure one up in a few minutes.  Any hardwood should work well:  ebony, maple, rosewood, granadillo, etc.  Years ago an ebony mute was commercially available, but I haven't seen it advertised for decades; hence the homemade mute

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Thanks. I have an ebony cello mute that I'm trying to retrofit. I guess cello bridges are a lot thicker. Maybe it's time for the duct tape. 

Try a Deering John Hartford. I have one and it is mellow, warm. When I want a more dry staccato sound for some songs/tunes I put a piece of heavy duct tape over bridge, not pretty but who looks at your banjo anyway? And better than carrying 2 banjos with you to jams.

I read this method (duct tape) here many years ago,

The kind of picks you use also makes a huge difference. Plastic picks can be a chore to get to fit right, you need to dip them in boiling water and then you have a few seconds to bend them, while trying not to burn yourself. But once fitted, they are very warm sounding and completely change your tone, but can still be just as loud. I use them on resonator guitars. They do wear out after a while.

I also love Diamond Ti picks. They are titanium, very light and comfortable and have a noticeably warmer tone than any other kind of metal pick I've ever tried. Don't really love their thumb picks though. I prefer a BlueChip Reso thumb pick, which is heavier than their banjo thumb picks. Also adds warmth.

Other than that, it's all setup. I've actually had better success warming up loud and responsive flatheads, then I have wood tone ring banjos. Wood tone ring banjos usually need a fairly tight setup in order to get a good bass response, but then the high-end is still kind of sharp. A good flathead can tolerate a much wider spectrum of setup changes, including thicker and looser heads, heavier bridges and heavier strings.

At least that's my experience.

Well, I was going to name-check Nechville, since their resonator banjos are known for their warm tone, but I see others beat me to it. Prucha banjos are also known for their "warm" sound, including his maples.  Alison Brown is a wonderful Prucha player. Not sure if Prucha is still making banjos these days.

Mahogany is your best bet, though walnut, cherry, and maple can be warm as well. Any mahogany Gibson such as an RB-250 or RB3 can be very warm--loose head, lower tailpiece, fatter bridge, skin head, heavier strings can help, of course.

Bela Fleck's signature sound is all about "warm," and he gets it on his mahogany rb-75 (originally a tb-75, I think).     The Gold Tone "Bluegrass Heart" model was designed and engineered specifically to deliver that tone. 

Alan Munde has a very warm sound, and has produced that for years on a mahogany Stelling "Crusader" model.   Noam Pikelny is another "warm" player, and his signature for years was a walnut RB-7 top tension, though he's lately been getting a warm and deep sound from a maple Granada.

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Originally posted by ceemonster

Not sure if Prucha is still making banjos these days.

 

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I think they still make banjos. I just ordered a Prucha bridge from them and it was delivered very promptly after payment:

https://www.pruchabanjos.cz 

I'm a cheapskate.

Anything that increases the mass of the bridge will mellow out a banjo.
Even a couple of clothes pins.

Experimenting with mutes is a lot cheaper than buying a new banjo.

How about sawing slots in one of these office supply clips?

Feel free to epoxy putty some metal to it.

Have you tried putting duct tape underneath the head?

Less expensive than a new head, and, quicker to install.

And you can add or remove, until you've got the sound you're after.

For REALLY warm, replace the 5th string on an acoustic guitar with a light gauge first, remove the 6th string, and tune it like a banjo.

You will then have something that will sound like the instrument pictured here:

Tried to find a video for a sound sample.
Best I can do is an MP3
Here's me, on a $25 HARMONY (rummage sale) guitar I turned into a 5-string:

https://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/audio_player2.asp?musicid=29805&archived=