Will an 11 3/8" high crown head work on a standard 11" Mastertone flathead ring?
NO!
An eleven inch medium should work if everything else is to the normal Mastertone specs, or Gibson clone.
Bobby
The head won't even fit inside the tension hoop. Trying to use a head with that much excess on it will cause no end of problems. Get a head that's the proper size. You can fudge a 1/16" but I wouldn't try more than that.
11 inch with a 3/8 inch crown or a 11 3/8 inch banjo head?
Some cheapy Asian banjos I have worked on are so poorly made and put together that the rims were over 11", the heads were 11 1/8" plus and the tension bands were even larger diameter. To get the rim to fit an 11 inch head, I had to reduce the outer rim to 11" (only down the rim about maybe 15-20mm). I had to cut the tension band down and get it welded together so there was no over hang.
3/8-inch is low crown and will not work on an 11-inch flat head tone ring.
High-crown is 1/2-inch and is supposed to work on most flat heads. But if the cutout in the heel for the tension hoop and head's flesh hoop isn't cut deep enough, it's possible the hoop will bottom out before the head reaches the tension you're going for.
That's one reason many people use medium crown heads for flat heads. They work in most cases. The tension hoop will sit a little higher, but that doesn't usually cause any problem.
If you're asking about an 11-3/8 inch head, it still needs to be high or medium crown to work on a flat head tone ring. Low crown won't work.
I ask because I keep an eye out for NOS pre-EPA Weather King heads. 11” medium and high crowns are few and far between. But 11-1/16 and 11-3/16 come up from time to time. I’m using an 11-1/16 high crown on an original flathead and it works fine. The extra 1/32” gap around the edge actually allows the stretcher to settle more like a medium crown 11”. But my sense is that’s as far over-size as you can go and posts above confirm that.
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