The Glory-Beaming Banjo

OK, so maybe I was wrong. In the last post , we discussed stuffing the pot, and I claimed this practice "isn't getting the job done" vis-a-vis the desired tonal qualities of my banjo. After switching to Chris Sands' heavy nylon strings, I removed all the stuffing from the pot. The result was pure echo. I figured it would get drowned out when playing with others, but then I played with others and it still sounded all echoy. This problem may be solved by switching to a thicker skin head, but in the meantime it's back to stuffing. Maybe it wasn't stuffing that was the problem, but rather the placement of the stuffing I didn't like. But first, let's talk about what we use to stuff our banjos. Lots of people like a sock or old rag, while others use a piece of foam of varying sizes and densities. Some people use duct tape, and I know at least one player who uses wadded up tissue paper. A guy I play with on occasion swears by Kroger plastic shopping bag...