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Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/334198
Texican65 - Posted - 09/01/2017: 17:04:17
Greetings! My 1890's Morrison is all polished up and at my luthiers awaiting restore. The neck was not connected to the pot, and the heel had a crack in it...tailepiece and nut have signs of steel strings sometime long ago...perhaps why the damage to the neck. Either way...she's being brought back to life. The only thing left that I need is a hide head. I'm trying to achieve the brightest, snappiest sound I can...that an 1890s Morrison is capable of anyways... I'll be using the old school LaBella no. 17 strings before they were resized with an all maple 2 foot bridge. And I've decided to go with a Stern high quality head, probably the thinner the better I would assume to assist in the sound I want. My question is...can I order these heads from Stern Tanning Co. at a certain thickness...and what thickness is recommended? What were Ossman and Van Eps' heads like?
Thanks guys,
Dow
Bob Smakula - Posted - 09/02/2017: 05:45:11
You can order heads directly from Stern, but delivery time is spotty to say the least. My last order took 9 months. That said, the quality of their product is so good, superior to anything on the market, that you should place your order and patently wait. In the meantime install another head.
Bob Smakula
Ken LeVan - Posted - 09/02/2017: 17:17:13
Mid-East sells various head types and diameters in "thin, medium, and thick". I don't know which would be the best bet as a starter.
banjonz - Posted - 09/02/2017: 17:50:01
Given that many of the earlier banjos has Rogers vellum on them, and they were very thin, I would recommend thin ones also.
blm10jn - Posted - 09/03/2017: 18:02:28
.010 hard calf polished one side from Stern. My last order took 2 weeks. I find goat to be to soft.
carlb - Posted - 09/04/2017: 12:00:43
I like to use thin heads usually ranging from 0.2-0.25 mm (0.008 - 0.01 in). I am trying one that's 0.15 mm (0.006 in). It plays well but, based on mounting other skins, it appears to have streched more and I had to remove and shorten it. I now have developed a method for shortening skin heads that have been mounted to loosely and have already been trimmed.
Edited by - carlb on 09/04/2017 12:09:11
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