Share your tuning stories

full metal · #1 (**permalink**) 10-26-2005, 08:59 PM

Hello all guess Ill start this out.

I just wanted to share with you what I have done to my kit to get a nice deep sound out of my toms and bass.

Im sure some of you already know this info from your own exspirence but for anyone haveing trouble Im here to help you out.

I started out getting all new heads for everything, top and bottom.
I started with remo pinstrips on top and remo ebony for bottom.
for bass I got one of the remo flame design heads for the front and a power stroke 3 for the back.

on the toms I tuned the bottom heads to thte point that I wasnt going to have that really nasty ringging sound to them when I hit them but I wanted to get away from putting muffling on the kit so I tuned up the bottoms, for me this also requires getting thick heads that are double ply single ply wont work for this.
that was the resoning for the remo pinstrips on top.
I tuned them so that they have a deep tone to them but will continue to reesonate after they are hit. I really didnt have to crank them up all that much to get the sound, but note that about every 2 to 3 weeks I have to
re-tune the drums.
if just work with it you will get the sound that you like.
but somthing else that I have found is to get rid of any factory heads that came on the bottom.
there is only a few companys that have good heads that are put on there.

for the bass it is basicly the same pricipal as the toms, but I found even with a lot of tuning that i still wasnt getting the sound that I liked out of it.

I had a chance to play on one of the new heads that has that muffling built into it and that made think of marching band and how we muffled our bass drums.

so instead of buying a new head with that muffling I went down to ace hardware and got the 2" foam that you use on your window a/c units and some silcone caulcing (clear) and put on a small strip in a half arc on the inside of the head and once I started tuning it I got the sound that I was looking for, but I had to really crank the front head to get.

Somthing I sugest for tuning your bass is to have your friend help you while you are tuning it by having him sit there and just keep hitting the bass drum while you tune until you get the sound that you like.

One more thing I ended up going to aquarine heads one some of my toms and they seem to be able to stay in tune longer and last longer.

Now its everyone elses turn to share their tuning stories.

hankster · #2 (**permalink**) 10-30-2005, 06:52 PM

my beef was with my snare. i put a powerstroke on the top with an o-ring plus a piece of cardboard underneath to make it sound decent. i took my old '60 gretsch which had a broken bottom and put the stock ludwig batter on the bottom. i don't need an o-ring nor cardboard underneath. sounds pretty decent. i think i'll replace the bottoms on all the drums and see what happens. the topss have pinstripes.

full metal · #3 (**permalink**) 10-31-2005, 07:25 AM

somthing I have found in the past is the prob with some snare drums is the snares themselves. If they are not fitted up just right they can be almost impossible to tune.

Make sure that they are on there just right.

I used to have one of the old pearl school drums you know the snare with the stand and case, but it was an all metal shell and no one could ever get that thing to sound good ever, I ended up putting a falam II on the top and made it have that high pitch sound to it and it was really cool

DRUMMER111 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-31-2005, 01:48 PM

ok let me help you first off what type of snare do you have and second what sound are you trying to achieve?

**Tainojim** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-26-2009, 12:47 PM

The realm of tuning drums is like walking in the woods without a compass. You don't know where to start and where to end. From all the posts I've read so far, everybody "thinks" their own drums are tuned the way their ears hear it to sound right. Nothing wrong with that. But nobody has drums in their ears, just ear drums. I know it takes many hours to tune your drums right. I've been in the field of drumming for over 50 years. All brands and types, but I have a secret when it comes to tuning drums.

It's called a tuning parameter and it doesn't exist in your head.
It's like a bad mechanic blaming his tools for his mistakes.

There is a huge difference between being a Drummer and being a Percussionist.
Allot of drum players don't even realize that even a Piano is a percussion instrument and it can't be tuned without a tuning fork.

For drums, the starting point is by using a drum dial "like a tuning fork for a piano" that comes with a chart that has tuning parameters for both the batter and the resonance heads (Skins).
No matter what brand of heads or drums, hi-end or lo-end this works.

Now if tuning the drums to your liking is good enough for you, don't bother reading any further.
But for the perfectionist, get the DrumDial by DrumDial Inc.

If you really want to know the difference between being a drummer and a perfectionist, well you know the rest.

Thanks for reading my post so far, and respect your elders.
Tainojim-Native American Made

**Tainojim** · #6 (**permalink**) 03-15-2009, 03:30 PM

Yo no se lo que el senior NICNIC esta deciendo seobre esta pagina.

Gus · #7 (**permalink**) 05-14-2009, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tainojim

The realm of tuning drums is like walking in the woods without a compass. You don't know where to start and where to end. From all the posts I've read so far, everybody "thinks" their own drums are tuned the way their ears hear it to sound right. Nothing wrong with that. But nobody has drums in their ears, just ear drums. I know it takes many hours to tune your drums right. I've been in the field of drumming for over 50 years. All brands and types, but I have a secret when it comes to tuning drums.

It's called a tuning parameter and it doesn't exist in your head.
It's like a bad mechanic blaming his tools for his mistakes.

There is a huge difference between being a Drummer and being a Percussionist.
Allot of drum players don't even realize that even a Piano is a percussion instrument and it can't be tuned without a tuning fork.

For drums, the starting point is by using a drum dial "like a tuning fork for a piano" that comes with a chart that has tuning parameters for both the batter and the resonance heads (Skins).
No matter what brand of heads or drums, hi-end or lo-end this works.

Now if tuning the drums to your liking is good enough for you, don't bother reading any further.
But for the perfectionist, get the DrumDial by DrumDial Inc.

If you really want to know the difference between being a drummer and a perfectionist, well you know the rest.

Thanks for reading my post so far, and respect your elders.
Tainojim-Native American Made

I don't care what others might think, I like your end message (I think I'm part cherokee, I like learning about the Navajo culture)!

**Tainojim** · #8 (**permalink**) 05-15-2009, 09:22 AM

I started a thread for beginner's on how to tune and replace drum heads. Check it out some time. I feel this would be the easiest way to get started.

In the drums Talk Section: Basic Drum Tuning and Head Replacement

**Tainojim** · #9 (**permalink**) 05-15-2009, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus

I don't care what others might think, I like your end message (I think I'm part cherokee, I like learning about the Navajo culture)!

To really find out about your Native Heritage, you have to learn about the wars and trail them back to wear your people are from.

Gus, if you're really interested in Native American culture and history:

Cherokee: The Trail of Tears
Navajo and so on: Get 500 Nations, The true Untold Story of America. The DVD format is much cheaper than the VHS format.

Vernon Bellecourt and Floyd Red Crow Westernman on you tube. Lots of information there.

Don1187 doesn't like me sprinkling my Taino heritage around the forum like he owns it, but you know how that goes and "Personally My Dear, I don't give a Damn". (Old Bogart saying). Lots of people don't know about the first Natives that greeted Christopher Columbus and the atrocities that went on.

Education is the back bone of life.

Take care my brother.