Currently I'm building up new lights for technical talk at summer festival (WHY).
For this project I'm using 3 banjos:
• OT800LN (long neck banjo)
• BB400+ (bass banjo)
• OBJE356-SBK (guitar banjo)
The last one has original a black head which I will replace with a white frosted one.
Original black one has a measured crown height of about 3/8” or 6/16” (measured distance from the back of head to the ring) ring itself is 3/16” and total head thickness is between the 8/16”-9/16” depending how much I push the head with my caliper.
As I also have same inner crown height on a BJ-1100-M1 head which is I think a medium crow head I’m not sure if the OBJE356 has a medium or low crown head.
Second question I have concerns the frosting.
For good diffusion of LEDS I need some frosting and the original heads on the OT800LN & BB400+ have a thin or no frosting for which I now need to use some additional filter I put between the LEDS and the head. Better would be to use a new head with a bit thicker frosting.
The BB400++ has a 14" Remo HC Renaissance banjo head. The only 14” banjo head I could find is the original one from Goldtone.
So second question is which head could fit the OT800LN and/or BB400+ with some more frosting?
Below is the teaser for the talk at WHY and it shows the workbench build up for this project.
Project is using Teensy4.1 microcontrollers which control 3 disks with in total about 1500LEDs.
Updates
March 24 - Finished the hardware see test 1 2 3, clip with banjo heads, banjos get their own power bank and connection between the banjos with LAN cables.
March 26 - I got a new banjo head, the BJ-1102-L2. The total head thickness seems to be in same order as Ortega head but ring is 6.0 mm instead of 5.3 mm. To get all these banjo heads clear (in my own head 
) I made a table. I will update it with the OT800LN if I have that one ready for "banjo light" replacement but I think it is same as the one I named H1 with light frosting, so low crown type. I used metric dimension which is what I have on my measuring tool. Crown = total thickness - ring. For crown I converted the mm to inch using : crown [inch] = crown [mm] / 25.4
March 28 - best fit for Ortega replacement is H1. BJ1102-L1 does not fit as diameter is larger as indicated by the 1102 in naming. As frosting on H1 is light I need to add additional filter but will use this for now as I do not have alternative banjo head available and not clear where to get one.
March 30 - yesterday had a look at head specifications at the Remo website: https://remo.com/search?query=BJ-1100-L1 and things became more clear. BJ-1102 is a banjo head with a diameter equal to 11"+ 2/16". Also cracked the numbering code behind the crown indicator L, M, H : 1 - Coated Top, 2 - Coated Bottom, 3- Clear, 4 Cloudy, 5 - Fiberskine, 6 Renaissance and E for Ebony: So the head on the OBJE356-SBK must be the BJ-1100-LE. Would help if this would be included into the specification of the banjo or maybe lesson learned ask it before I buy a banjo. Ordered 2 banjo heads at a music store in France and I think they will arrive somewhere next week.
Banjo Heads Table - updated March 30
Seems ring comes in 6.0-6.5mm and 5.2mm; Best fit I have now for replacing the OBJE356-SBK head is with Remo head I named H1. Also good fit is the clear head I named H2 brand to me is unknown it has a star with a number 5 inside.
Edited by - Lightingbanjo on 04/09/2025 11:23:12
If the heads are not required to make music, I would recommend using layer after layer of tissue paper under, until you get the level of light you ant.
Unless I misunderstand the concept.
Thanks Mike,
What I showed in clip is the workbench set-up, after getting the electronics to work I need to build the lights and electronics into the banjos and we need to play them during performances so I think tissue papers will not work. , I'm realy looking for banjo heads which we can use.
Aha! I
DID misunderstand the concept!! ????
Hi Mike,
Yes I think you did. We are buiding the sets into real banjos and then we go out and play on them.
New is that we have 3 banjos in our band (thinking about adding another guitar banjo) and have connected lights in them.
On the banjos animations will run and we can put messages on them.
Target for this year is to play at a couple of light festivals.
Took a picture of the original banjo head as mounted on the Ortega banjo.
Based on dimensions it looks like low crown of 7/16 inch (crown = height - collar). So I think I need to look for frosted low crown 11". Also of thinking about adding some spray using wall paint or other grain structured paint. If layer is thin it should not affect the sound to much in addition if humbucker element is used the sound effect is probably neglectable.
Got some new banjo heads:
* Deering 11" Top Frosted MC Banjo Head: total thickness 16mm; ring = 6mm
* Remo 11"BJ-1100-M1: total thickness 16mm; ring 6mm
Comparing this with the Ortega guitar banjo head: total thickness 13mm; ring = 5mm, so I concluded I need a frosted low crown banjo head.
Ordered one at Thomann (Germany) but is has quite a long lead time. It can still take 4-6 weeks to get it.
Ordered yesterday one Remo low crown at other shop (Remo BJ-1102-L2 Banjofell Low Collar 11 1/8") hope to get it next week.
Frosting on the Deering head works well but this head does not fit on the Ortega.
Also the longneck seems to have low crown head with 5mm ring.
Electronics is almost ready for building it into the banjos and I'm making some first animation. As I'm still in test phase the first animation is called Sound Check #1 - NL.
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