I play the tenor banjo.  My Vega banjo is about 50-60 years old and had
natural skin head on it for many years.  It split when I aggressively
tightened it and I replaced it with a synthetic head because they were easy
to get.  I miss the natural skin, it was a wonderful mellow sound.  It was
also very sensitive to humidity and could go quite dead on a humid day.  In
the old days Banjo players would try to dry out the heads with a fireplace
fire before playing to brighten the sound.  I plan to go to the trouble to
special order a real skin head soon.

Bob Edgerton
Seattle, WA