Home› Musicians and Gearheads

drum tuning

JamHead86JamHead86 Posts: 37
edited February 2005 in Musicians and Gearheads
my friend and i jam together and trade off between drums and guitar. He has a drum set that probably has never been tuned. Does anyone know what each drum should sound like. the toms and bass sound awful, the snare isn't too bad though. thanks for your help.
"I feel it!"- Eddie, during Alive solo, Chicago 2003
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Posts: 6,395
    Tuning drums is like giving your girlfriend head...


    Nobody knows WHAT they're doing, but they know when they've got it right.


    Trial and error, my friend.
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • dirtyfrank71dirtyfrank71 Posts: 108
    Start out with a fresh set of heads. This is best because if the heads have not been changed in a while and have been tweeked and tuned..after a while they just cannot stretch anymore.
    Take off the old heads and put the new one on. Check the bearing edge of the drum out for cracks or dips (this is the sharp angled edge at the top and bottom of the shell). If there are any dips, chips or cracks the head is not going to sit right on the shell and will never tune up right, take it to a local drum shop and have them recut..only costs about 20.00-25.00 an edge...not too bad.
    If everything is good there, put the new head on. Then the rim and put all the tension rods back thru the holes and into the lugs.
    Do this where there is a good amount of light. "Finger" tighten all the tension rods till they are snug. Take a finger and press in the middle of the head, then you will see all the wrinkles.
    With the ol' drum key in the other hand, start with 1/4 turns on each lug in a "star" patter...meaning one then the other across from it and so on.
    Keep pressing in the middle of the head while you are tuning the lugs in a star pattern. Once you see no more wrinkles...stop.
    Now, you are probably going to hear glue snapping and popping(remo heads are going to do this mostly. That's OK, its just the mylar stretching out over the bearing edge.
    Once there are no more wrinkles in the head, take the tom you are tuning and put it on your knee to dampen the other side of the drum.
    Tap lightly on the head with a key about an inch away from each lug and listen for a note or pitch. This is where it gets personal, whatever the pitch you like for that drum is the one. Just tap in the same star pattern about an inch away and tweek the tuning until each lug has the same pitch.
    On the bottom heads, I like to tune juuust a little higher than the top, it controls the tone a little better..but again...its all personal, some like to tune the top and bottom the same..all good.
    The new heads are going to stretch or work in for a while so you might need to re-tweek a little before they play in.
    Same goes for kick drums but make sure you apply ALOT of stretching to the head and to tune the lugs..it really makes a difference on such a big shell to really stretch the head out before playing it.
    My .02,
    Good luck
Sign In or Register to comment.