Banjolele skin tension?

chris667 said:

Flick your fingernail against the vellum. This sounds ridiculous, but it should sound like "tap tap tap" rather than "tup tup tup".

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As an owner of a quintet of drums on sticks of various sizes this sounds spot on and the best advice so far. It's a "feel" thing I believe. You know when they are too slack ,they sound dull and lifeless.

I surrender! I have read and watched a ton of stuff about tuning the banjo/banjolele head. The thing that made the most sense is to use a drum head tension gage.

So, I bit the bullet and bought a DrumDial with a digital readout. It includes a case and a piece of glass upon which to calibrate it. I bought the digital one since I won't be using it live on stage. So brightness of the readout won't be an issue.

I figure for my Southern Cross Tenor and my Deering Tenor I need something a little more precise than a tap tone.

I'll do a review after I use it a few times.

How did that go, Kenn?

I bought an analog Drum Dial a few years ago for use with a full-size banjo, because I couldn't figure out how to tune a drum to G#! My ears can't do that. I went with the mechanical model because I figured it might last longer and won't require batteries, and it's a tool I only use very sporadically. I actually meant to check the tension of my Deering banjolele and see if I can improve the tone a bit (also experiment with strings). For the banjos, I go for 90-91 on the Drum Dial, which I understand is around G#.

I'd really like to love the Deering banjolele, but I never really connected with it. It just sounds very plunky/tubby. Some folks like that, though, but I hope brighter strings may do the trick, and perhaps the head needs tightening too. That'll by my weekend project, I think. I speculate I may like one of those cheaper banjoleles better (the one by the Magic Fluke company always seemed nice in videos), but between ukes and full-size banjos, UAS hasn't flared up irresistibly, yet!

I asked Remo about how much to tension their skins in Nm and this is what I got:

I checked with R&D and we actually do not have this info available.
I'd say it's player preference as I haven't heard any issues getting the head tensioned and sounding good to the player.

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The "it's player preference" is awfully common in the banjo world! A lot seems to be done by "feel" and by "ear". I bought the Drum Dial because all the information I could find was either "tune it by ear", "press the thumb on the head and do it by feel", or using an American coin with an American ruler -- none of which worked for me! The Drum Dial at least gave me a simple numeric value and I could work with that, even though it's a mystery value to me, too. But I know 90-91 "sounds good".

Supposed to deliver it tomorrow. The instruction videos by DrumDial say banjo heads typically have "true tympanic tensions" from 88 to 92. No idea what that is. Lbs/sq in?

https://www.drumdial.com/videos/banjo-head-tuning/

I'll get to it after I finish gathering all of my tax info to send to the accountant. Always fun.

I checked and the dials measure distance, in either 1/1000th of an inch or mm.

They have a spring loaded pin, that depresses the skin and the dial shows the depression, so it can't be converted to any other unit.

I have torqued my banjolele tensioners to 1,5 Nm. It improved the sound a lot. It looks like the skin isn't torqued/tuned from the factory.

Congrats. That looks like a very nice instrument. Perhaps someday you'll post a recording of yourself playing it?

Nickie said:

Congrats. That looks like a very nice instrument. Perhaps someday you'll post a recording of yourself playing it?

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I have just started playing it and am not into all this selfpromotion on the internet, so it'll be a while, if ever

Done with taxes, so I finally had the time to try my DrumDial on my tenor Southern Cross Banjo Uke with an 8" dia pot.

It's a bit difficult to do because of the strings and the armrest that take up a lot of territory on the top. I removed the bridge. The metal feeler that was included with the gauge was just a hair more than the armrest covered, so I used it to give me a consistent distance from the rim as I took reading around the head.

There was no consistency in the readings, which was to be expected. I had tried to tighten the head by feel and the amount the bridge was pushing into the surface. The readings were 78 to 84. So I went crosswise around the rim and tightened everything to 85. That seemed too slack. So did another round to 87, then 89, settling with 90. Very tight. Which gave it a much louder and more jangly sound. Still get a little buzz from time to time, but it sounds much better.

I confess, I'm chicken and didn't want to go any tighter.

Anyone know how to deal with the tailpiece?

Poul Hansen said:

I checked and the dials measure distance, in either 1/1000th of an inch or mm.

They have a spring loaded pin, that depresses the skin and the dial shows the depression, so it can't be converted to any other unit.

I have torqued my banjolele tensioners to 1,5 Nm. It improved the sound a lot. It looks like the skin isn't torqued/tuned from the factory.

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Poul I'm kinda dense. How does the 1.5 Nm (Newtonmeter) of torque translate to tightening the head? Is that the resistance you set on each tension hook nut? I've used a lot of torque wrenches, but never had one that sensitive.

Thanks for the info on the dial measure distance.

Kenn2018 said:

Poul I'm kinda dense. How does the 1.5 Nm (Newtonmeter) of torque translate to tightening the head? Is that the resistance you set on each tension hook nut? I've used a lot of torque wrenches, but never had one that sensitive.

Thanks for the info on the dial measure distance.

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I have a few wrenches meant for carbon bicycles and the fixed ones start a 4Nm but I have some variable ones which can show 1.5Nm but it's of course with quite a big margin. Yes I tightened each of the hook nuts the same and also coming from racing motorbikes I of course did it in a cross pattern

Here's a wrench:

https://www.ridinggravel.com/reviews-2/topeak-torque-wrenches-quick-review/