--- In OldTime-l@yahoogroups.com, "trancegodz" <trancegodz@...> wrote:
>
> What is the best type of head for clawhammer banjo?
>
> I am guessing that all of the old timers must have used skin heads.
> Likely either cow or goat. That makes me want to try a skin head.
>
> What is the difference in sound between all the types of banjo heads
> available today.
>
> All the very best!
> Terry
>
*********************
Have been down that road (skin vs plastic, vs fybreskin vs
Renaissance, ad nauseum)many times in the past 30 years or so. At
one point for consistency sake, I abandoned skin altogther. In the
past few years, however, I have found that for some banjos, a skin
head works best. With tubaphones for some reason, I found that
fybreskin or Renaissance work best (though a good frosted head can
also work ok). Skin on a tubaphone (and some whyte laydies) really
never has worked for me.

My current 'working' banjos are a Fairbanks Electric (John Gough
custom), a Kevin Enoch 300 model (mid range standard custom model), a
12" Lee Marble Falls tubaphone and an 11.5" Brooks Masten spunover.
With a fair amount of experimenting, here is what I have found:

Gough Electric: This banjo (11") has an old Rogers skin head.
Bright, crisp, plunky and great volume. Would never mess with the
head unless it pops due to heat or dryness. Then it would be another
fairly thick skin head. Hopefully an original Rogers. I did add an
old Kerschner tailpiece at one point, and that seemed to add a lot of
good brightness. I have owned other original Electrics in the past
and found that a good skin head seems to work best.

Kevin Enoch: 12" pot. Came with a fybreskin head. Nice banjo, rare
as a hen's tooth these days, but I found it lacking in tone and
volume compared to other instruments when I first got it. I finally
added a good quality skin head Plus a heavy (non Gibson clamshell)
tailpiece and this banjo totally opened up and improved in sound and
volume. A real 'killer' player. Great for heavy duty one on one
banjo/fiddle stuff or a big traditional jam session.

Brooks Spunover: 11.5" pot. Had Brooks build this one custom and
put on a thick goatskin head. As it 'played in,' I tightened it down
quite a bit and it really opened up... once again, tone and volume
improved considerably. I believe it took a week or so for it to
really break in and get that definitive plunk, but now it has it and
still has a crispness too. The heavy duty spunover pot seems to gain
a lot (in terms of depth and plunk) with the skin head.

Chuck Lee Tubaphone: 12" Marble Falls. This banjo came with a
Renaissance head and sounds really great with the original head and
setup (no knot tailpiece). I have been tempted to try a skin head on
it, but it really sounds great as is. Probably has the best
combination of old time sound and volume out of the box of any banjo
I have ever played. Very consistent in tuning/tone. I like to take
this banjo on stage, but it is fairly heavy for a standup type gig.
What I really like about this is that if anything happens to it, his
banjos are so consistently good, you can replace it with another.

These are my most recent experiences with banjo heads. have also
gotten ahold of banjos with the 'old' frosted plastic that have a
great mellow and loud/plunky sound for old time (particuarly
tubaphones) I would have to say that there is no pat answer to
the 'skin vs plastic' issue. It just depends on the banjo (and the
ear of the player).

Pluck on McDuff,

John (Adams)