[gyutae]

Anyone have any experience with drum dials? Do they help at all and make your set sound better? I'm considering getting one but don't know if it's worth the money.

[DrummerMom]

I have never used one. I learned to tune my drums the old fashion way.
If you do get a drum dial let me know what you think of it.

[Davenhurst]

I think I said this in another drum dial discussion somewhere - I used one at a session a while ago and just found it useless. I think it's nothing better than a gimmick and it doesn't do any favours to drummers who really want and need to know their instrument.

Tuning does take work, we all know that, but a new drummer with an undeveloped ear and a drum dial is not going develop the ear for tuning or the intimate knowledge of his/her drums, and may think that if the dial says it's ok, it's ok. They may be bashing away on awful sounding drums oblivious to the fact that there's an amazing world of tone at their fingertips.

Smash the drum dials!

Love,
Mr. Luddite

[mind_drummer]

You can always build your custom drumdial for about 10$

http://www.hotdrum.net/forum/index.p...topic=4022&hl=

http://www.pearldrummersforum.com/sh...d.php?t=134980

[michaelpops]

My teacher bought a drum dial and lent it to me for a while to tune up my drums. I got my snare sounding amazing, I'd say perfect tuning, just what I wanted. On the other hand, the toms were hell to tune, they just never sounded that great. So for the 100$ it will cost to buy one, I'd rather keep the money and spend a little extra time tuning it normally.

[gyutae]

Ok maybe I have things mixed up, but what exactly does a drum dial do? Does it basically turn the lugs on a drum for you to get the right sound?

[Davenhurst]

Originally Posted by gyutae

Ok maybe I have things mixed up, but what exactly does a drum dial do? Does it basically turn the lugs on a drum for you to get the right sound?

Basically you rest the dial on your drum head just by a lug and it measures the exact tension of the head at that point. You still tune by hand, the idea is to get the tension reading exactly the same at all lugs. Then, in theory, your drum is perfectly in tune. Don't like them myself, as I said above.

[gyutae]

Ok that makes sense... I would think that it would be a hassle to do that for every lug though.

[DrummerMom]

That's why I personally prefer to keep my money and tune my drums the old fashion Way. I have several local drummer friends that also help me if I don't like the sound of my kit and can't get it just right. They come over and we spend 15 minutes tuning my kit and it sounds awesome (I only do this when I get new drum heads).