By the way, Gilly, I use the Bill Palmer method of tensioning the head on my North Star. Works fine.

Imagine you're standing in front of your banjo, and that it's facing you. The bracket to the right of the neck heel we'll call 1 and the one to the left we'll call 24.

Here's the tension method:

1, 24
6, 7
18, 19
3, 4
15, 16
9, 10
21, 22
2, 5
14, 17
8, 11
20, 23


If you have a Drum Dial, try a reading of 89.

Cheers
-F