Crown Height

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Hide Heads

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For all things related to the use of SKIN BANJO HEADS. Calf, goat, possum, hairy, shaved, stained, pre-mounted. You name it.

380 Members, Created 3/28/2011 -

Administrators: jbalch (owner)

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From J-Walk on 1/18/2012 4:09:21 PM

quote:

Originally posted by jbalch
Final remaining issue: the crown height of this skin head is a bit too tall. I'll mount a new one when I get time. But for now this one fits well enough. The tension is good. But It is pulled down so far that I don't have room left in the neck-notch fo tighten it much more.

This is from John Balch's "Rickard Dobson ring" post.

So how do you control the crown height when mounting a skin head? I've done 7-8 skin heads, and most of them came out fine. A few were a bit too low or a bit too high. It seems that luck has a lot to do with it. Or is it experience?

3 Comments
	carlb says: 1/19/2012 6:04:31 AM My guess is experience. I tighten the head while it's still wet so that there's still a bit of looseness in the head. I estimate the degree by pressing down on the head. I now have a feel for about how much it should be. If it's too tight or too loose, then I take off the head and start over.
	jbalch says: 1/19/2012 3:37:31 PM As a rule of thumb when mounting a new hide, I think it is best to start with a low crown. I usually set the crown at least 1/8" lower than I want it to finish (tension hoop sitting 1/8" higher - or more). Even after the hide drys tight, the skin will continue to stretch as tension is applied. If the tension hoop ends up a little high, I stretch it slowly. It is OK to re-wet the head if that helps. Just don't do too much - too fast. I've mounted a few dozen heads and only ever broken one by overtightening (knock-on-wood). The issue with the head on my Reiter was a little different. That head was originally mounted on the banjo when it had a different tone ring. The crown was high...but not too high for further adjustment. I just installed a new Rickard Dobson tone ring ...and re-used the pre-mounted head. The original tone ring had a different top profile and was a larger diameter. So the head was already streteched the bigger shape. So on the new Dobson ring, this head pulls down a little futher. It is tight and sounds good for now. But there is no room left for additional tightening. You might encounter this kind of problem when re-using an old skin head or transferring from one banjo to another
	jbalch says: 2/4/2012 3:01:30 PM I mounted a new goat hide on this banjo today. See the photo linked tio this group.
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