Very useful video if you need to replace your banjo head, showing you step-by-step how to do it, with me, Mississippi Feller, as your personal instructor.
For the first couple of years I never messed around with my banjo, for fear of breaking it, or mess it up somehow. But if you read about it a little, you'll find out that tinkering with your banjo is very good for you, and the banjo itself. You get to learn and understand how it works, gets closer and more intimate with your skin box, and as for your banjo, well, it can sound and even look a lot better. And you might could save money as well.
Here, I replace a high crown, originally cloudy, but painted banjo head with a low crown, fiberskyn banjo head. The banjo itself is a very budget instrument, known as the Washburn B-8, which comes with a cheap "Beginner Pak".
Fiberskyn banjo heads are known for their mellow sound and are the head of choice of a lot of clawhammer folk. I'm a Scruggs-style picker, however I plan on learning clawhammer in the future. Besides, as I have recently purchased a fancy Washburn B-17 with a very loud, bright and crisp sound, so a mellow, lower-sounding banjo is perfect for practice, besides of being light enough, and cheap enough to carry with me to rough places.
The tension was also way too high, and the banjo was nearly impossible to play. So I installed a new 1/2" low bridge and carefully (and slowly) adjusted the truss rod until the strings were closer to the fretboard. The result was a low action, which made the banjo a lot easier and more pleasant to play, especially at high speed. The 3rd string was buzzing, and I fixed that by placing a very tiny piece of paper on the notch of the 3rd string in the nut (the piece between the peg head and the neck/fretboard), reducing the gap size between the walls of the nut notch and the string, which eliminated the noise completely. That procedure and cheap fix is sometimes useful in the 5th string slot and the bridge as well.
A little reminder: do NOT paint a fiberskyn banjo head. The ideal heads to paint would be the white head, or even frosted, clear or cloudy, painted like a canvas, or a clear banjo head painted from the underside. I might upload instructional videos on painting banjo heads in the future, in similar fashion to this one.
If you have any questions, leave comments and I will reply to them as soon as I can, it's my pleasure to help. Again, I also recommend the Banjo Hangout website for all your questions and doubts about all-things banjo and good, friendly professional advice. I'm by no means a professional, but I hope I was able to help y'all. Thanks for watching.
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- Songs, instruments and musicians featured in this video:
SONGS AND INSTRUMENTS:
Dixie (Banjo), Burnette's Lament (Appalachian Dulcimer), Turkey In The Straw (Dobro), Cajun Fiddle (Cajun fiddle and pedal steel guitar), Buckaroo and Love's Gonna Live Here (medley on pedal steel guitar), The Resolian (bottleneck parlor guitar), Fireball Mail (Banjo) and Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Banjo).
SONGS AND PERFORMERS:
"Dixie" - performed by "Mississippi Feller", composed by Dan Emmett
"Burnette's Lament" -- performed and composed by "VaDulcimer"
"Turkey In The Straw" - performed by Martin Gross, traditional
"Cajun Fiddle" -- performed by Don Rich & The Buckaroos and Buck Owens, composed by Don Rich
"Buckaroo / Love's Gonna Live Here" -- performed by David Hartley, composed by Bob Morris / Buck Owens
"The Resolian"-- performed by "Bottleneck John", jammin' for Republic Guitars sound sample
"Fireball Mail" -- performed by "Mississippi Feller", composed by Floyd Jenkins (aka Fred Rose)
"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" -- performed by "Mississippi Feller", composed by Earl Scruggs
All rights reserved to owners of the songs, no copyright claims made in this video.
Video proudly made in Scotland.
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Changing the headby nechvillebanjos1,294 views
@msfeller where did you get the custom head?
RossKPHerd 3 months ago
@RossKPHerd I painted it myself. But I might could make a hands-on video tutorial on how to paint banjo heads shortly, as soon as I get new heads to paint.
MSfeller 3 months ago
Great video. My fourth string has the same buzzing problem your 3rd string had. I will try putting paper in the nut slit thing tomorrow and get back to you.
MellowCruisin 5 months ago
@MellowCruisin That should work, if it is indeed the gap in the nut being too wide. But beware if you have a clamshell tailpiece, the other day I had a buzzing sound on my newer banjo and it turned out to be just the clamshell tailpiece that was not closed properly and caused the strings to buzz somehow. If you have a regular tailpiece, then the paper trick should do it. Also make sure your bridge is positioned correctly and positioned in the exact center, otherwise buzzing may occur as well.
MSfeller 5 months ago
Good video, appreciate it. What kind of banjo is that? Just curious.
MountainJackson 5 months ago
@MountainJackson You're welcome, glad it's appreciated. The banjo is a 5 string Washburn B-8, which is not available on their website (the cheapest on there is the B-9), but available with a beginner pack for a very cheap price. I use this B-8 for practice and then my B-17 for performance.
MSfeller 5 months ago