BANJITAR!

[Zork]

Well, if it was a standard 11" medium crollar head I would have a few options. I need a 11 1/8" low collar head and there's exactly two I can buy here. Both white, either smooth or roughed. I'd prefer a more rustic appearance too but at least the sound seems to be good according to thomann reviews. Both are Remo heads.

[Zork]

I chose the roughed frost white one after reading this:

Remo's frost or white heads are the benchmark for professional banjos. They have their own sound characteristics. Frost (white with a rough layer) is a little duller, although it gives a special body. It is the most commonly used in commercial banjos and it hides the excess of harmonics in cheap banjos with aluminum pots. The simple white, not frost, is the most commonly used in Dixie and Irish music banjos. It is not as dull as Frost, but it does not have the brightness of the clear (transparent) ones, which are much more useful in bluegrass banjos. White is more versatile and can be used on one or another type of banjo, depending on the taste and particularities of each instrument. Ideal for archtop banjos that would be too bright with Clear and that would eat away at their bright and sharp nature with Frost.

[Zork]

I hate waiting for parts. This is usually when I can't let my fingers off a project and start tinkering on unecessary details and mess things up...

[dubkitty]

tell me about it. i have three guitar projects waiting for parts.

[Zork]

Ok, so after I got the right size, the head went on quite easily and I even managed to bring it to good tension without messing anything up:




I'm rather proud of how the headstock came out:



It's self adhesive 1-ply stuff from Ali Express. It matches the color of the bindings perfectly. I hope the glue doesn't make any trouble in the future.

Next is stringing it up. The new bridge is much higher than the old one. I suppose I'll need to do some shimming on the neck but we'll see. So far, so good.

[Zork]

Ok. It's nearly done. I had to use a little shim and a loooot of tweaking, sanding the bridge down a bit and stuff, but it came out pretty good. First it sounded like shit but I tightened the head a bit more and it's better. Action is not low, but reasonable. I think my strings are much too fat. Could be that a banjo is the first stringed instrument I come across that sounds better to me with thinner strings. Will post pics later.

[dubkitty]

banjos seem to do better with lighter strings. my electric bouzouki could probably use lighter ones the next time i restring it.

i was going to suggest sanding down the bridge, but i didn’t want to fuck with your creative process.

[Zork]

All done. Needs lighter strings, though.

[dubkitty]

that looks really good!

.010 on top at the least, maybe .009.

was the peghead facing cut from a pickguard, or do they sell pearloid in sheets?

[Gone Fission]

That pearloid face does look great. I would use the fuck out of that if I were doing the right DIY stuff.

[Blackened Soul]

It can be a bit of trial and error with strings on any acoustic instrument.. I tend to feel lighter tension strings let the instrument do the work vs overdrive the top..

[Zork]

Thank you guys. The perloid was a sheet. I just cut it with scissors to approximately the right size, put it on the headstock as it is self adhesive and cut it flush with a knife. Then a bit of refining with a scraper blade and sanding the edges slightly.

[Zork]

The banjo has a scale length of only 23". .009 will be much too spaghetti tensionwise but I might try .010s and probably settle later in the middle ground with .011s.

[dubkitty]

i have to use .011s on my Duo Sonic which is 22.5” because .010s were just too floppy. the banjo-guitar might prefer 10s, though, because you aren’t driving the body much at all.