Faffing about with heads, strings and bridges is half the pleasure...especially once you discover the combo that tickles your ears.

I like Fiberskyn...but not too tight. Nylgut and plain Pine is a good combo...but I prefer nylon, and the cheapest plain maple bridge. Ebony isn’t needed...but it won't hurt to try. I dislike walnut or any very heavy bridges. Too much sustain.

Compared to a regular head, an FS head removes the sparky sound of banjos.
Compared to a light maple bridge, a walnut also removes the sparky sound of banjos.

If your aim is to neuter your banjo and to make it sound like not-a-banjo, then an FS head + a thick walnut bridge definitely is where it's at.

I’m on my 6th Goodtime and have tried all the different heads. I have not tried anything other than metal strings. Just my personal preferences, as someone who plays a lot of country and gospel type music. Ren heads are too bright and thin. Fiberskin suck the life out of the maple rim. The basic frosted head is still my favorite for practice and jam volume. But the sweetest sound I’ve ever gotten out of a Goodtime, was with a Deering SkinTone head. They are expensive, but would be my choice, if I was just playing at home, and didn’t have to cut through a mix.

Well. I like the Ren head on my Goodtime, but I keep the head tension relatively low at 89 per Drum Dial.

The renaissance head, nylon/nylgut strings and a two leg bridge are a good match. 

Fiberskin is an effective mute; choose this for amplified/processed playing, maybe.

Notes on Banjo Heads at the same tensions:
Frosted ~0.009" heads are the baseline setting on modern five string banjos. Milder banjos get a volume boost from thinner more sensitive 0.008" Renaissance/amber heads and LOUD banjos can be sweetened with a thicker 0.010" suede head.  Thicker suede heads are less sensitive and extract a small volume penalty in exchange for better control and sweeter tone. Fiberskin 0.014" heads are an effective band-pass filter and tone mute.  Set the tension to 89-92 on a the Drum Dial (~91).

Ren / Frosted / Suede / Fiberskin
Bright / Quick / Plunky / Muted
0.008" / 0.009" / 0.010" / 0.014"

Gut or nylon strings don’t need an ebony capped bridge.
Making your own bridge would be somewhat in the spirit of that simplicity.

I have one of these banjos you are hoping to emulate with your goodtime. The practical reality is that you won’t replicate that 8” head, solid back, fretless tone with a factory-built 11” head, fretted open back. They are entirely different instruments.

Realistically what you can sensibly do is explore the tone available to you from your goodtime.

I recently successfully stretched a high-quality, thin calf-skin head on a friend's factory-standard Gold Tone CC100 which is the goodtime's market 'stable-mate'. I've not seen this conversion before, but it can be done. I upgraded the cheap factory pressed hooks at the same time to take the additional tension. The effect on tone was unsurprisingly considerable. More importantly my friend, who has owned this banjo for 6 years, is stunned and delighted.

Great responses , thanks all! I saw the skin tone and the price and spotty reviews on here put me off.
I already have a Clifford Essex maple uncapped bridge and a walnut ebony bridge but the head is the purchase part.
I even thought if I got it sounded sweet enough I would strip it and try and re stain in to dabble with basic banjo configuration. Anyone tried this ? The maple finish is thick and ugly maybe it would be a mission not worth trying

Alternately if it is your your dying wish to have a banjo that resonates as if a small animal has curled up and died in it, or you are simultaneously using your instrument to carry home roadkill -  you could simply buy yourself a roll of gaffer tape and apply liberally anywhere that poor abused banjo still tries to ring.

Humour aside, my well-meaning advice is that the long -term benefits to be gained by you learning how to control and develop tone with your hands outweigh gimmicry by a factor of a thousand. Probably advice that frustrates now, but in 10 years you'll realise it was entirely sound help.

EEB - THANKS!
I agree heartfully. Who was it that said something like -when you start playing, you obsess over the gear, then you focus on your technique, but ultimately, it's the love of music that keeps you playing.
Zepp showed me this in all his videos , he can play a goodtime or 5k boutique and he always is having a great time and bringing the best out the instrument.
Banjo has been a healing journey for me so I am really trying to maximize the sound that vibrates through my body and around me but my technique is the most important thing herw!
But my goodtime just sitting there so maybe I'll just stick some nylguts on it and loosen the head a touch
Cheers

quote:

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Originally posted by Surfbanjosurf

Banjo has been a healing journey for me 

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Banjo is healing for many of us here at a difficult time. Good luck. I wish you all the best.