A Bacon Tone Ring on an Open-Back Banjo

Head taps on a new Goodtime banjo rim fitted with a reproduction Bacon Professional ff tone ring are contrasted with a new Goodtime, a 2002 Goodtime, and a 1999 Goodtime fitted with a 1/4′′ diameter brass ring. Conclusions: The 1/4" ring does what's commonly imagined, the upgrades to the Goodtime over the years are not merely cosmetic, and the Bacon ring's biggest effect is to damp head ringing and suppress high harmonics. Detailed comparisons of the new Goodtimes with and without the Bacon ring suggest simple physics accounts of the differences. Conjectured mechanisms are energy dissipation by the vibrations of the Bacon horizontal flange, the added radial stiffness due to that flange, and the friction of air passing through the narrow flange-head gap.