Quote:
Originally Posted by George Henry
They both have calf or goat skin heads. The Luscomb was a real bear to get a new head on. They built those things to very close tolerances!
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The few S. S. Stewarts that passed through my hands were also built to close tolerances and I really had to wrestle the new vellum heads on them. One of them I gave up doing it the "right way" and pre stretched a head onto the rim with a big stainless steel hose clamp first, let it dry, then fitted the stretcher ring over it to finish the job.
I owned a whole lot of vintage and reproduction banjos at one point, with original and replica examples of tub-a-phones, whyte ladyes, silver bells, little wonders... all in both 11" and 12" rim sizes ....and my favorite of them all for that old time banjo sound was an early 20th century Bruno "Manhattan" which had a rolled brass ring held up and away from the wood of the rim on a series of posts. I should have kept it, but of course I had to sell it off to buy the next one.... :/