My Mystery Banjo needs a new head.

[Tyler Cornett]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering if you all in your great experience could help out a banjo newbie like myself in procuring a new banjo head for this fine instrument I got from eBay a while back. I don't remember what the auctioneer said about it, sadly it has been more than 60 days and I can't find any record of it. I want to say he said it was a Sears Roebuck from early 1900. I don't know.
Since the head was torn I decided I would take it apart piece by piece, clean it up and attach an old gas can to it. Its a novelty, but I'd rather have the original pot attached with a head of some sort. any ideas on what size or type I should get and where I should get it from? I want to use it for classic playing.
Thanks in advance.

Here are some photos I took.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1138/20100627171256.jpg
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2622/20100627171340.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9991/20100627171516.jpg
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8665/20100627171600.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/922/20100627171651.jpg
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/246/20100627172147.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7747/20100627172240.jpg

Also I made a short video with it back in April, it isn't in the classic style, but it shows the neck and peghead.
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/N4liXMwrxPc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/N4liXMwrxPc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

[Trapdoor2]

Yeah, I'd delete the gas-can. ;-)

Calfskin heads can be bought from a variety of places. I just bought three from http://www.banjoseen.us/Store/index.html and mounted one Tuesday evening. Took me about an hour to disassemble the banjo and get the new head mounted. It is drying yet in another room...but I could have completed it yesterday or today. I'll finish the job this weekend for sure. Mounting your own calfskin is a bit daunting at first but really not difficult at all. Lots of tutorials out there but the best I've used is the one from S.S. Stewart himself. http://www.frets.com/fretspages/Musician/Banjo/SSSHead/ssshead.html