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Hide banjo head care
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Subject: Hide banjo head care From: Charcloth Date: 03 May 02 - 11:53 PM Hey folks I have a friends tenor banjo here & it was her fathers. The banjo was made about 1925 or so & has a for real hide banjo head. (This the first one I have ever actuallly seen in all my 45 years.)Any way I was wondering about maintaining the hide. How do you clean it? (it's got lots of years grime on it) How do you preserve it? Do you put wax on it or anything like that? How do you control it's tension in regards to the weather & all w/o constantly loosening & tightening the brackets. The brackets don't look like they have been touched since King Kong was a monkey. I would be afraid to try & turn the screws on it. The banjo is really pretty nice. It's cool to know the owner was an Irish man who retired from the costguard on the greatlakes. He kept it with him in all his years of service. He had this banjo all my friends life & she is 51 years old. I love hearing all these stories don't ya know Thanks for the help Charcloth |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Les B Date: 04 May 02 - 12:20 AM Charcloth - just PM'd you a moment ago on another matter, tthen ran across this. I've got a tenor banjo I put a deerskin head on a couple of years ago. They're neat. For cleaning I would carefully try some sort of non-corrosive leather cleaner -maybe a shoe store would have something. Of course they're rawhide - if you know any buckskinners who deal in parfleche cases maybe they have something for cleaning, like for taking the paint off ? In terms of keeping them tight, I've heard of the old timers lighting a match or a candle and holding it near enough the head to gently heat & tension it. Stop if it smells like you're singeing something!! |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Steve Latimer Date: 04 May 02 - 07:17 AM Hey Charcloth, As you know, I've quickly become a bit of an expert in the Banjo Heads department. Sounds like a neat instrument. Do you know what make it is? Check this out: and Steve |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Charcloth Date: 04 May 02 - 10:17 AM I may have made a mistake as I used a hand cleaner on the head. (it was Nasty!!) So I need to know if there is anything I should put on to restor the natural oils of the hide. Steve, I know you'll find this of interest. the banjo is Columbia Ludwig banjo. When I first picked it up from my friend the Fret board was lifting something terrible. We had that repaired. It took a while to find someone willing to try it. The fretboard was almost paper thin. The banjo was missing a strung, the bridge was laying down to prevent stress. & when I stood the bridge back up the banjo was Still TUNED! To an open D chord! Way Cool hugh? |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 04 May 02 - 10:53 AM I've had hide heads on banjos most of my life. I've never had to clean one. Depending on how grungy it is, grunge is beautiful. IMHO. The stains that show that the banjo have been played a lot give the banjo character, as far as I'm concerned. Paint would be another matter. The only hide head I've ever had split was on a banjo mandolin and I think the stress of that many string tuned to the tension that you need finally did the head in. I've replaced skin heads too, and it's far less mysterious than it might seem. Les B could tell you that. I wetted the head until it was very pliable, mounted it on the rim, tightened the nuts enough to pull the head tight to the rim, and then put the whole banjo in the oven on the lowest temperature, just to dry the head out so that it would shrink. Don't set it at 400 and come back a half hour later. You have to watch it, and check it, but it worked fine for me. I've also heard that people squirt lighter fluid on the head and light it. The lighter fluid will burn off very quickly (or so I was told) without starting the whole banjo on fire. I don't recommend that method. For cleaning wood, I'm likely to use Murphy's oil cleaner. It will clean up the wood, and oil it at the same time, without hurting the surface. I have a five string banjo I bought for $10.00. The guy who was selling it had kept it for at least thirty years and got it from someone else who'd had it as long as he could remember(who got it from someone else.) It's hand-made, and beautiful. When I got it, it still looked like it had the original head on it. And it still does, last time I cracked the case.
All this said, I am definitely NOT an expert on banjo heads. What I know, I picked up from what other people said, and what I've tried. It sounds like Steve is your man for the best advice.
By the way, when I bought my beautiful $10 banjo, it was listed in the newspaper. I called the number, figuring that the parts alone would be worth $10, even if the banjo was unplayable. When the guy answered the phone, the first question I asked, heart racing madly, was "Does it have four or five strings?" He said, "I don't know, let me go and look..." When he came back, he said, "It's got five strings, but one string doesn't come all the way up the neck." No wonder he only wanted $10 for it. It had a broken string, too. But, I paid him the full $10.00. :-) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Steve Latimer Date: 04 May 02 - 12:23 PM Charcloth, My Uncle who is the Tenor banjo player is in town. He has several tenors and is in a banjo band, I'll see if he knows anything about this one. In tune? It definitely ain't a five string. Jerry, Great story about the $10.00 banjo. The "expert" thing is a little inside joke between Charcloth and me. I bought his old Five String and proceeded to snap the head and had to replace it. I learned a lot, most importantly "if it ain't broke..."
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Doug Chadwick Date: 05 May 02 - 04:44 AM I pass this suggestion on without accepting any responsibility if things go wrong I have a Windsor No 1 tenor banjo, probably made in the mid 1930's. I took it to a festival and showed it to a knowledgeable person running one of the commercial music stalls. He advised cleaning up the head by gently rubbing it with a slice of bread. Apparently, it has just the right amount of moisture and acts as a sponge to collect the dirt. I tried it and, while it didn't seem to do any harm to the banjo skin, neither did it make much impression on the grime. Perhaps I just lacked the necessary perseverance. If anyone wants to try it, I'd be interested in the results. I might be prepared to give it more effort if I knew the end result would be worth it. Doug C |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Charcloth Date: 05 May 02 - 04:48 PM never heard of that use for bread before |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 05 May 02 - 04:50 PM It's important that you use Wonder Bread. It's definitely not good to eat. :-) Jerry |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: greg stephens Date: 05 May 02 - 05:00 PM I'm with Jerry:I have always had a skin head on my tenor banjo and I've never cleaned it with anything. I've changed it a few times. I use an electric hair dryer on it before wet winter gigss, or maybe just hold it in front of the fire for a while till it sounds right. The banjo's been around a lot longer than I have, and I hope it caries on for a long time after I've gone. It knows a lot of good tunes. |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: death by whisky Date: 01 Jul 02 - 09:08 PM Ive had a banjolin lying around .Eventually got a bridge and strings for it.However the skin wont take the pressure.Ive been given a drom skin to try,but someone suggested treatin the old one with skin cream and stuff.It might be worth a go |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: GUEST,Les B. Date: 02 Jul 02 - 01:53 PM Got to be careful with some of the creams "and stuff" it might make the head grow hair again :) ! |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: death by whisky Date: 02 Jul 02 - 08:31 PM A hairy banjolin.Could start a trend. |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Les B Date: 02 Jul 02 - 10:17 PM But oh so luxourious to play ! |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: Hrothgar Date: 03 Jul 02 - 04:31 AM And a real problem when it demands a perm! |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: death by whisky Date: 03 Jul 02 - 04:51 AM There'll be no flouncy retro hairstyles on my instrument.... |
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Subject: RE: Hide banjo head care From: GUEST,Les B. Date: 03 Jul 02 - 11:48 AM Just part it down the middle so you can get your finger on the "G" string ! |
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