When putting on hide head, how much do you snug the head down when it is still wet ( realize, of course, that it when wet is is pretty soft, but there is still some variation)? And, how much room do you leave for further snugging down after drying?
I have put on a number of heads, and on occasion, I have found I don't have enough room to tighten the head, and on occasion, find that I pulled the head too tight before drying, and ended up with a tension hoop that was too high.
Any thoughts? Thanks.
8 Comments |
 | carlb says:
4/15/2012 6:11:44 AM
I usually leave just a little curvature in the head. I've never measured exactly how deep the center is from the rim, but if I had to guess, it might be about an inch or so.
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 | edavidt says:
4/15/2012 12:26:08 PM
I am not sure what you mean by "an inch or so." When my head is still wet, it is pretty flat; no sagging. Are you saying there should be an inch of sagging?
Three heads ago (banjo heads that is), I didn't stretch the head very much while it was wet, and as a result, when I went to tighten it up after drying, I ended up bottoming out on the notch in the neck.
So, the last two heads I put on (one on a Ramsey and the other on a Reiter), I barely slipped the tension hoop on over the flesh hoop, put the brackets in place, and used a pliers to stretch the head relatively tight before drying.
The result on these was that my tension hoop did not not drop much when I tightened it after drying, and the tension hoop sits quite a bit higher than I like.
So, I am looking for the happy medium.
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| carlb says:
4/15/2012 12:36:42 PM
About an inch of sag, maybe less, I'm just guessing. I've never actually measured it that way, but just push to see that there's still a bit of looseness to the head, so the sag may be minimal.
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 | Pine Cone says:
4/16/2012 8:39:37 PM
I recently purchased some thicker goat skin head from Jeff Menzies.
I installed the head using a similar offset to a Bill Miller Vellum Calfskin head (about 3 turns onto the j-hooks, barely on the banjo. Maybe 1/4-3/8" above where I wanted the tension hoop to end up. When it dried it was way too high.
The goatskin head was way too tight and I had to put another one on, tightend just barely above where I wanted the head to end up, maybe the tension hoop was about 1/16" above where I wanted to end up.
I think it is related to head thickness and maybe material, but it certainly can vary between heads.
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| edavidt says:
4/16/2012 9:01:03 PM
Thanks, I just finished another one and it went pretty well. Here is here is what I have come up with:
Wet the head, but don't over do it. I might have soaked it about 5 minutes.
Put it on, and get the tension hoop positioned about 1/8 higher than you want it in the final position. Leave at least a quarter inch of leeway before you would bottom out on the neck notch.
Use a needle nose pliers to pull the head pretty tight while it is still wet. This is the key, I think. By getting the head with just the right amount of wet tension, it will dry to an almost perfect tension for playing.
Let it dry. Bring it down the 1/8 (or less) to tighten it up.
Before starting the process, when deciding where I wanted the tension hoop to sit after drying, I tried to make sure that I would still have 1/8 to 1/4 inch of leeway on the neck notch.
I think this is the best one I have done. Still lots of room to pull it down farther (but don't think I will need it), and it only needed to come down about 1/8 inch after drying.
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| Pine Cone says:
4/16/2012 10:37:52 PM
Rather than tensioning the wet head with needle-nosed pliers you might try canvas pliers made for making artist canvas. About 1.5 or 2 inches wide and about 1" deep. Good for tensioning skin-on-frame kayaks as well...
Another lesson I learned is to not trim the head before making sure you have it at the final height. Not the best practice, but you can raise or lower the flesh hoop if it is in the wrong place by wetting the head again if it is the wrong place and then either tensioning the head a second time if you want to lower it or loosen the head and use the pliers to raise the flesh hoop if it is too low.
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| edavidt says:
4/17/2012 6:37:23 AM
Good advice about the pliers. I tore the hide a little with the needle nose. One time I trimmed too early, and the result was that the overlap was too small, and I pulled the head out while tightening it down. Thanks again.
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 | jbalch says:
4/29/2012 7:55:34 AM
Good suggestion about the pliers. I have some old watchmakers "duckbill" pliers with flat tips that are about 1/2" across. They are helpful to grip the hide with less risk of tearing. (photo linked to this group).
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