Now, if you had a banjo for each one of those bridges, you would be off to a good start.

You're making good progress. You've eliminated 26 bridge designs that don't work. Thomas Edison would be proud of you.

quote:

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Originally posted by TimFoster

Try, try again. And then again. Well... maybe one more time after that.

Okay, just three more times and we're done here.

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Hi Tim,

What is the problem that is trying to be solved?

I’ve been doing the same thing!

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Originally posted by pinenut

Hi Tim,

What is the problem that is trying to be solved?

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Hey Kam...  No particular problem really, I just travelled a bit farther down the ol' tinkering rabbit hole than I expected last night.  ;-)

Chris Warner finished up a '32 TB3 conversion for me earlier this year... I love it, it's become my main player, but now that things have settled in a bit, I figured might as well  dive in and get a feel for how it responds to different setup configurations, heads, bridges... I figure this is probably a lifetime banjo for me, so might as well slowly dial it in over time and get the absolute best out of it.

Well you know how that goes!  Initially I just wanted to try an older pre-EPA head I had floating around, as opposed to the heavy Huber head it came with.  I've both loved and hated the Huber's on banjos relative to other things, and wanted to try to figure out if it was the best starting point on this one.  The EPA was a bit too untamed initially, so down the tailpiece height and bridge rabbit hole I went lol...

I have a rehearsal tonight, and the new (old) head/bridge have had some time to settle in... so hopefully have some inkling as to whether this iteration bears any fruit.  If not, I guess I'll set it back next string change...

It never ends, lol

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Originally posted by Mastertone Banjo

It never ends, lol

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So true lol!  I took it to band practice last night and... and...  dang it, I think the Huber head is going back on.  Or at least, this pre-EPA is coming off... 

I was just considering replacing my Huber with a pre-EPA, LOL

Oh no lol… well for what’s it’s worth — I did happily run it on an old Gold Star for a while… I liked it there, and took it off when I sold the banjo just to have one around.

This is also the only pre-EPA I’ve ever had first-hand contact with, and i gotta wonder how representative of them in general it is. I bought it in very “used” condition. There’s a substantially larger-than usual patch down to clear on the treble side and a bunch of wear up by the neck on the bass side — so it was clearly mounted and well-played for a loooong time.

I wonder if, between those years of hard use and the passage of time, the Mylar has stretched and "thinned” out? You can tell it’s a lot thinner than the Huber, and not just on account of the frosting… at the same 91-ish tension on the drum dial, I can much more easily depress my fingers into it… in fact I ran a slightly taller bridge on it because the action sat a bit lower with the bridge sinking in more… touching the head with my fingers has a bigger dampening effect than on most modern heads too…

At the end of the day I guess it was a bit more responsive, but just didn’t work well for how I play. Almost played like a clear head — felt like it would need alot of dampening (on this banjo), lost some low end punch, and my heavy picking habits weren’t doing it any favors.

But I’d say go for it if you have one laying around. In my case it does sort of feel like this one was a waste of time — but still a learning experience and something to build upon at the end of the day. I guess lol.

quote:

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Originally posted by TimFoster

quote:

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Originally posted by Mastertone Banjo

It never ends, lol

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So true lol!  I took it to band practice last night and... and...  dang it, I think the Huber head is going back on.  Or at least, this pre-EPA is coming off... 

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This is always interesting. I may think a head is awesome at home, but go play with my friends, and it comes up short. It seems that when a head is borderline cringe obnoxious at home, it's just right for live music. I thought a white suede was really good and was going to stick, but the more I played it, the less I liked it, especially into a single mic mix. Today is also head change day for me too. I keep wasting money on non frosted heads, and always go back. 

Hmmm. Thank you for saying that!

I’ve actually never really thought of it in this sense, but yeah — absolutely! I’ve definitely experienced it in the past and was further reinforced last night!

Well good luck man, every now and again a “win” must be in the cards!!!

I put an unmarked Remo on from the 90’s…came on my Crowe RB75. I weighed several pre-EPA heads including one Sonny Osbore gave me…he autographed it but marked on the back he took it off in 1979. These all have epoxy pour channels. They all weigh within a gram or so at 60 grams. I have a new Remo with a pour hoop from Stewmac - 60 grams. The Huber head has a crimped ring and weighs 109 grams. Also have a crimped Remo from a Recording King -also 109 grams. That is a huge difference. Now I’m wondering if the mass of the head (mylar, coating and hoop) makes more of a difference than age or era of the head. I put it on my Granada and it really came alive!