Old Banjolele Care

Ukeefus

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Wondering if it is a good idea to loosen strings or lay the bridge down on my banjolele in between sessions. The head's very old and maybe less tension might help preserve it, however it may not be smart to keep adjusting it. ???
 
Before you do lay the bridge down, or move it at all make sure that it is in the right position . It should be equi distant from 12th fret to nut 12th fret to bridge and then check intonation with a tuner ... Make a pencil mark round the two feet so that you always know where to put it ....I don't know if it does make any difference to the longevity laying down the bridge...

But my two BU s both have their bridge position lined out with pencil marks .You sometimes move the bridge by mistake....
 
Less tension may help "preserve" it, but I'd anticipate you'd introduce tuning stability problems until the presumably natural skin re-tensions each time. At the end of the day, the skin has a "natural life", be that 5, 15, 55 or howsoever many years, after which it'll need to be replaced. Trying to extend that time-frame by making the instrument less convenient in the meantime seems a little counter-intuitive ... to me ;)

IMHO, play it and be damned !!

As always, YMMV :)
 
This all makes mucho sense, guess I shouldn't think of the banjo-head in the same way I do with the natural drumheads on my bongos, congas, djembe etc., those require detuning between playing sessions to help preserve them but that would probably just cause a sag with a banjo. Maybe a little overconcerned here but the head is not 5, 10 or 50 years old it's 95 years old and in fine shape (for real, I keep trying and failing to post pics so here's the video link again - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3cCWpxBDSrg -), also a little worried cause I put Aquila red banjo uke strings on it for a lower less "dinky" sound (worked) but they are thicker and have more tension than most other banjouke strings (I knew this when I ordered them). Don't need to draw a line for the bridge on the head btw, some previous owner saved me the trouble, went through 3 bridges to find the right one, had 'em all over the place, in the end the perfect bridge sat right on the line so cudos to whoever marked it "back in the day."
 
Grandpa's (now my) banjo-mandolin dates to around WWI and my Varsity banjo-uke isn't much newer, if at all. I can't swear to the banjo-uke's usage history but I know the banjo-mandolin's strings (much higher tension that the banjo-uke's) haven't been loosened much in the last century and the head seems to be in great shape. So no, don't worry about what low-tension strings will do. If my banjo-uke had tuning machines instead of tension pegs I'd even consider loading steel strings onto it.
 
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