Just completed a drum to banjo conversion, looks good, sounds ok but after constant retuning I realise that the bridge is pushing into the drum membrane. Firstly, this is not a high quality drum that I have used as it was picked up off the side of the road (big garbage day). I was wondering if regular banjos suffered the same problem, and do you relieve the string tension when not in use? May be the bridge is too high and putting excessive pressure on the drum skin? Maybe there is a reason why drums are not banjos?
When I needed to replace the head on my banjo many years ago I was steered toward a "Fiberskyn' head. Looks vaguely like animal skin and it has proven to be very stable. Also has a bit more mellow and old-timey tone than the standard banjo head.
A quick search suggests that Remo also offers Fiberskyn drum heads...
You might also try a larger base under your bridge to help distribute the load. That and flattening out the break angle to reduce downward pressure.
Looking at the pictures I can make 1 suggestion, you might have too severe of a break angle over the bridge
Commercial produced banjos have an adjustment screw that raises/lowers the height of the tail-piece so that the break-angle over the bridge can be fine-tuned to an appropriate pressure that transfers the sound without the bridge either flopping out at the first pluck or being driven down into the skin like an embossing die on a sheet-metal press.
Hi JL, I was wondering about that. I have done a little research on bridges for banjos and it seems like there is quite a bit in it. The weight and bulk, curved bases, positioning forward and backward as well as left and right all can hav a dranatic effect on sound.
Regards my tuning issues, I have had it tensioned and tuned for over 24 hrs and it seems to be holding tune quite well.
Thanks for the encouragement, reguards playing style , it is a bit deep but not much more than a fair dinkum guitar. You can play it any way you like but I am only a beginner so I will be playing how ever Pat Curly tells me to. (CBG Lessons)
jeff Cadzow > Ron "Oily" SpragueJanuary 3, 2017 at 5:21am
Hi Ron
To be honest I was afraid to leave the strings tensioned over night in case the bridge pressed a permanent dent in the skin. But I feel a little more comfortable with it now so will leave it tensioned and see what happens.
You may have noticed that l kept the wire Spring things (I don't know what they are called) on the underside of the drum skin. Initially I didn't think they added anything to the overall sound of the instrument but after playing around for a while, with and without amp, there are some possibilities. The device is retractable anyway.
thats the snare..its what makes it sound different from a tomtom....no not the GPS...lol
when i was a drummer in a pipe band the skins we used were kevlar.... pipe band drums have really high tension to get that distinctive crack when you hit them...
Replies
Jeff -
When I needed to replace the head on my banjo many years ago I was steered toward a "Fiberskyn' head. Looks vaguely like animal skin and it has proven to be very stable. Also has a bit more mellow and old-timey tone than the standard banjo head.
A quick search suggests that Remo also offers Fiberskyn drum heads...
You might also try a larger base under your bridge to help distribute the load. That and flattening out the break angle to reduce downward pressure.
- John
P.S. Nice looking build.
Looking at the pictures I can make 1 suggestion, you might have too severe of a break angle over the bridge
Commercial produced banjos have an adjustment screw that raises/lowers the height of the tail-piece so that the break-angle over the bridge can be fine-tuned to an appropriate pressure that transfers the sound without the bridge either flopping out at the first pluck or being driven down into the skin like an embossing die on a sheet-metal press.
Regards my tuning issues, I have had it tensioned and tuned for over 24 hrs and it seems to be holding tune quite well.
Don't futz with it. Play on.
Really nice looking rig!
Is it intended to be played lap style?
I wouldn't make any radical changes. Just give it time to settle in. Keep re-tuning and it should settle.
Nice job.
Has the tuning stabilized?
To be honest I was afraid to leave the strings tensioned over night in case the bridge pressed a permanent dent in the skin. But I feel a little more comfortable with it now so will leave it tensioned and see what happens.
You may have noticed that l kept the wire Spring things (I don't know what they are called) on the underside of the drum skin. Initially I didn't think they added anything to the overall sound of the instrument but after playing around for a while, with and without amp, there are some possibilities. The device is retractable anyway.
thats the snare..its what makes it sound different from a tomtom....no not the GPS...lol
when i was a drummer in a pipe band the skins we used were kevlar.... pipe band drums have really high tension to get that distinctive crack when you hit them...
Cool banjo! Yeah, I'd say replacing that head would most likely fix you right up. Bridge looks like it's in a pretty good position too.
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