Banjolele tone and pot sizes?

What effect does pot size have on banjolele tone?

Ever since I saw that Luna is about to offer banjoleles under their name, my UAS has grown along that axis as well. But I soon noticed that all the factory copies have 8 inch pots, with a few 6's here and there.

The banjo world seems to have settled in the neighborhood of 11(+/-1) inches, with variants ranging from 8 to 16 inches.

My current understanding of the relationship between string and head is in terms of energy transfer from the string (length x density = mass, tension) to head area (mass of air being displaced).

So short story long, why aren't there more tenor and baritone banjo ukes with 10+ inch pots? Does head size not noticeably affect tone? Or do the string lengths of ukes limit the head sizes they can drive?

Oh, and I'm not asking about the involvement of tone rings, which are a whole other beast...

Having spent a long time in the banjo world, I can assure you that there is no such thing as standardization. While the bluegrass world has more or less settled on the 11" standard, if you look over the long history of banjos, you'll find just about every pot size imaginable, from unspeakably large to unimaginably tiny. Owning a vintage banjo is a study in frustration if you want a plastic head, because it may be nearly impossible to find one in that size. Skin heads come in just about any size, since they need to be mounted to your flesh hoop (flesh hoop.... there's a phrase we don't use often enough), but mounting a skin head is an annoying, arduous process.

All things being equal (and they rarely are), a smaller pot size will accentuate treble tones, a larger pot size will accentuate bass tones. A tighter head will also tend to accentuate treble tones, and will also tend to make the tone more focused. While some modern makers do make tenor and baritone banjo ukes, they were pretty unusual in the heyday of banjo ukes, the 1920's and 30's. Since most modern banjo ukes are reproductions of the vintage ukes, it's not suprising we see a lot of sopranos and a few concerts. There's just not a lot of history for larger banjo ukes.

Additionally, banjos already come in so many shapes and sizes, it becomes questionable when a banjo uke stops being a banjo uke and starts being a banjo. Tenor banjos already commonly come in short-scale and long-scale variations, so what's really the difference between a big banjo uke and a small tenor banjo? There are lots and lots of used 17-fret tenor banjos that could easily be repurposed into big banjo ukes.

Finally, I think that the focused, trebly tone of the soprano banjo uke is the tone that attracts most people to the instrument in the first place. I find that larger heads on banjo ukes can tend to rob them of their uke-y quality. But as mentioned, there are a few builders, such as Beansprout that do make tenor banjo ukes. It's not going to be a "classic" banjo uke tone, but they sure do sound good on their own.

Great answer!

And, for building banjo ukes, you can Google "plywood cylinders" and find a lot of sizes available including drum shells of almost any size.

Installing calfskin heads on banjo rims was one of the first things I learned as an apprentice luthier in, gulp, 1963... The trick is in getting the tension hoop at just the right height so when the head dries, the hoop is neither too high nor low on the rim. I'm restoring a couple of S.S. Stewarts I picked up years ago, and I have "slunk" heads to stretch for them... Google it... Not for PETA or vegan types...

RichM said:

Additionally, banjos already come in so many shapes and sizes, it becomes questionable when a banjo uke stops being a banjo uke and starts being a banjo. Tenor banjos already commonly come in short-scale and long-scale variations, so what's really the difference between a big banjo uke and a small tenor banjo? There are lots and lots of used 17-fret tenor banjos that could easily be repurposed into big banjo ukes.

Click to expand...

Yep, I'm currently on the hunt for an short scale tenor I can convert to a "baritone banjolele" by throwing nylon bari uke strings on it, and probably a skin (anything but plastic) head. I'm looking to finger strum like a 'uke while not chewing my fingers up on steel strings, along with a much more mellow sound. -I also don't want to learn new chord shapes for 5ths tuning...yep, I'm lazy...it's the software engineer in me. ;-)

Despite being as high-pitched as a soprano uke is, I find vintage ones have a (relatively) mellow sound, which I attribute (correctly or not...) to nylon strings, cafe skin heads, and open backs. That's the sound that drew me to the banjolele. The resonator models with modern plastic heads I find shrill in the extreme, especially when people string them with steel.

RichM said:

All things being equal (and they rarely are), a smaller pot size will accentuate treble tones, a larger pot size will accentuate bass tones. A tighter head will also tend to accentuate treble tones, and will also tend to make the tone more focused. While some modern makers do make tenor and baritone banjo ukes, they were pretty unusual in the heyday of banjo ukes, the 1920's and 30's. Since most modern banjo ukes are reproductions of the vintage ukes, it's not suprising we see a lot of sopranos and a few concerts. There's just not a lot of history for larger banjo ukes.

Click to expand...

OK, so not only is the head a sound producer, it doubles as a resonating contributor as well? And triples(?) back through the bridge to get the other strings going too?

Then how much of the unencumbered tonal contribution (http://www.sticksandstaves.com/index.php?id=14) remains when we squish all the strings and bridge into the head?

Many thanks to all for putting up with all of my newbie/blind-feeler -type questions!