Hide tension for that bright minstrel sound

[Bufo Bill]

On the BHO forum I see constant references to the straight edge and quarter method of finding the right tension for a mylar head, whereby a ten inch straight edge is placed directly on the banjo head parallel to the strings, and a quarter is used to push under the straight edge just in front of the bridge. If the quarter fits neatly below the straight edge, then you have a roughly suitable head tension which you can fine tune.

I have used this method with fibreskin heads on my 1920's Vega, but on my 1880's fretless, I feel it needs to be much tighter to get that loud and sharp minstrel sound.

Here we get to the point of this post: my banjo has an odd size drum, and I wondered if this discrepancy was something others here experienced when trying this method with skin heads or if it would be more likely a result of the odd size drum. My guess is that it is a mixture of both, but I would be interested to hear of other minstrel banjo results with odd size drums or with regular 11 or 12 inch drums with skin heads.

My inner set-up nerd thanks you in advance, from Bill. :D