It depends on what kind of sound you want. Tune it to a G or thereabouts and you get a fatter tone, if you like that. If you want Ralph Stanley tone you may tighten it up as much as a B note. It will sound like a nail gun.

Experiment! Just give it a few days between tightenings to settle in.

Keep an eye on how far the bottom of the tension hoop goes down into the neck heel cutout. Don't let the tension hoop fetch up on the bottom, cause if you keep tightening then, you will break some tension hook tips. Nor let the bottom of the tailpiece bear on the head.

Have fun.

What Dick said or Drum Dial 90-92.

Hi Matt,
So for my money, having owned a 1927 solid archtop Gibson, and now playing a fantastic Stanleytone ( same pot configuration, solid raised head ring with tube and plate, I go with 88 on a drum dial, comes in at G#. Tons of Bass, wincing high notes and projects across football fields. I have the TP just off the head, Scorpion bridge at 2.0 grams. Some tension the crap out of a raised head but, it will strangle other aspects and I just do not see the value. 88 on your drum dial. Let me know if it works for you.

I set my raised heads at the same tension as my flathead banjos. Notice, I said tension, not the tap tune note. I like my flatheads at a G#. I don't use a drum dial so the flathead is 11" diameter; the raised head is 9.5". A smaller diameter head surface area will yield a higher note than a larger diameter head surface area when both are at the same tension. My raised head taps near a Bb. Last time I used my sons drum dial for his drum kit, both the flathead and raised head had the same reading, 91.

So, I guess the real question is- what tone do you want out of your raised head? If you go by a tap tune, start at A. Then decide if it needs to be brighter. Not all flatheads are the same at a given point (note or deflection). And, not all players want the same tone.

Ten banjo players in a room= eleven opinions (at a minimum)..............

I just built an irish tenor with a sullivan 40 hole archtop pot I had laying around.

I tried tap tuning with the siminoff book that says you want an F on the head for an archtop then tune the chamber to a C. I got F on the head with a drum dial at about 92, and was completely unable to get the C on the chamber (even with the flange over top of the res!). I was close, like 24 cents flat. Sounded terrible playing it.

I dropped the head back to 90 on the dial and dropped the res to where it rests on the T brackets, and it's been great since. This is with a renaissance head. I think I liked 91 better on a top frosted bluegrass type head.

I guess the moral of the story is don't trust general rules/numbers on a dial on this. Keep tweaking until you find what YOU like, and then measure and write it down. That way you can always get back to that later.

quote:

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Originally posted by jt80

Keep tweaking until you find what YOU like, and then measure and write it down. That way you can always get back to that later.

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I agree, use the drum dial reading as a reference point after you've adjusted the head tension to produce the sound you're looking for. For my 1928 40-hole archtop TB-4 conversion, the drum dial reading associated with the sound I like - full, clear, and warm, with a strong fourth string - is consistently 88-89. For my flatheads, it's 90-91. 

For your 1927 TB-3 archtop:
Tap tuning: Aim slightly higher than your flat top A# around B–C on the rim.
Head tension: Typically 60–70 lbs at the hoop for a 5-string archtop.
Tips: Tighten slowly and evenly, check for consistent tap notes around the head, and fine-tune after stringing. You want the head tight but still warm and responsive.