beluga
Aug-24-2016, 2:00pm
I'm writing for my wife who is not a member. Please bear with me, this is a long story.
She has owned a belmont bacon banjo for 30 years, but hasn't played it much for the past 20 years. Two years back, I started playing old-time music seriously, and encouraged her to join me by renewing her banjo chops. She played the BB for about a month, then decided the sound was far too tinny, and no fun, and that if she was going to play banjo every day she needed to purchase something with better sound. Keep in mind that my wife loves the rather inexact description of a "rubbery" kind of tone she hears on so many old time recordings. Soon thereafter, she bought a new banjo from a well known builder. She loves the tone, and has played it with me for about 2 years now. Meanwhile, the BB never leaves the closet.
Last week we played at an old-time festival where she engaged lots of other women playing old-time banjo. During one session, while everyone else was playing while standing up, she confessed to me that it was impossible for her to play standing up, and in fact she had been struggling mightily with her new banjo from the start because it weighed north of 25 pounds, which was far too heavy not only to play standing up, but to play for more than hour while sitting down.
Back home again, I suggested that she resurrect the BB, which is quite light. She told me that she couldn't return to that tinny tone. So I did some research. I believe she has a plastic head on the BB. I have this idea that some brand of authentic goat or cowhide head would likely enrichen the tone. But which one?
The current tone ring on the BB looks to be aluminum or maybe chrome. I have to believe that a solid brass tone ring would markedly increase the resonance of the instrument. Examining the instrument, its obvious that installing a new tone ring will take more work than changing the head. But how much more work, I don't know. And again, which one?
I discovered that Stewmac sells brass tone rings and several different kinds of banjo heads. These parts are inexpensive, and I can buy both for about $65. I have this idea in my head that it shouldn't be too difficult for a repair person to swap out either one or both parts, with the result of a much richer sounding banjo. I wouldn't do the work myself.
I then contacted my favorite string instrument repairman. He warned that the tone ring could be exceedingly difficult to swap out, and that all the potential machining might actually destroy the instrument. He concluded that such a repair wasn't worth it, plus, after the swap, the sound might not actually improve at all. He counseled me to sell either one or both banjos as-is, and use the money to get something new that works perfectly for my wife both weight-wise and tone-wise.
Before we take a next step, I thought I better ask here. For one thing, I don't quite accept this analysis. Changing the head shouldn't be too difficult, and I have to believe that a new head, alone, has to change the tone significantly. But will it be for the better? I don't know.
Anyway, if anyone has an opinion about I should proceed, I'd love to hear it.
She has owned a belmont bacon banjo for 30 years, but hasn't played it much for the past 20 years. Two years back, I started playing old-time music seriously, and encouraged her to join me by renewing her banjo chops. She played the BB for about a month, then decided the sound was far too tinny, and no fun, and that if she was going to play banjo every day she needed to purchase something with better sound. Keep in mind that my wife loves the rather inexact description of a "rubbery" kind of tone she hears on so many old time recordings. Soon thereafter, she bought a new banjo from a well known builder. She loves the tone, and has played it with me for about 2 years now. Meanwhile, the BB never leaves the closet.
Last week we played at an old-time festival where she engaged lots of other women playing old-time banjo. During one session, while everyone else was playing while standing up, she confessed to me that it was impossible for her to play standing up, and in fact she had been struggling mightily with her new banjo from the start because it weighed north of 25 pounds, which was far too heavy not only to play standing up, but to play for more than hour while sitting down.
Back home again, I suggested that she resurrect the BB, which is quite light. She told me that she couldn't return to that tinny tone. So I did some research. I believe she has a plastic head on the BB. I have this idea that some brand of authentic goat or cowhide head would likely enrichen the tone. But which one?
The current tone ring on the BB looks to be aluminum or maybe chrome. I have to believe that a solid brass tone ring would markedly increase the resonance of the instrument. Examining the instrument, its obvious that installing a new tone ring will take more work than changing the head. But how much more work, I don't know. And again, which one?
I discovered that Stewmac sells brass tone rings and several different kinds of banjo heads. These parts are inexpensive, and I can buy both for about $65. I have this idea in my head that it shouldn't be too difficult for a repair person to swap out either one or both parts, with the result of a much richer sounding banjo. I wouldn't do the work myself.
I then contacted my favorite string instrument repairman. He warned that the tone ring could be exceedingly difficult to swap out, and that all the potential machining might actually destroy the instrument. He concluded that such a repair wasn't worth it, plus, after the swap, the sound might not actually improve at all. He counseled me to sell either one or both banjos as-is, and use the money to get something new that works perfectly for my wife both weight-wise and tone-wise.
Before we take a next step, I thought I better ask here. For one thing, I don't quite accept this analysis. Changing the head shouldn't be too difficult, and I have to believe that a new head, alone, has to change the tone significantly. But will it be for the better? I don't know.
Anyway, if anyone has an opinion about I should proceed, I'd love to hear it.