Duct tape on rides?

[Pedey]

I want to get rid of the resonance on my ride a little bit and i notice some durmemrs put duct tape on the bottom, what's the general guide to doing that? i did a search and couldn't find anything on it so cheers.

[konaboy]

Putting Duct tape on the ride is going to choke the sound. What ride is it first off and why are you looking to get rid of the resonance? Is it too much from behind or in front of the kit?

[Pedey]

It's a paiste 20'' 502. I just want it to ring a bit less.

[OceanDirt]

I did that with my zildjian A custom ride. if you don't overdo it with the tape, a little bit can do wonders for cutting back on wash.

[jazzin']

Yeah I did this for a while to get rid of some of the wash, and bring out more stick definition. It did work but then i put a little line of ball bearing type thingy's on it and got a cool sizzly wash while keeping the definition.

Cool. Now I actually dont mind the sound of my cheap and nasty ride hehehe

[Pedey]

Are there any particular ares you should put it?

cheers for the replies!

[jazzin']

I didn't look into it much but i dont think it would make too much difference...try different spots around the cymbal, underneath, on top. I ended up putting mine underneath, right around where my stick hits.

Hope it helps :)

[Pedey]

ah k i'll experiment around with it tomorrow.

thanks heaps mate

[jonescrusher]

IMO, unless it's a really crappy cymbal, duct taping a ride is a pretty nasty thing to do - moongel will have the same effect of taking away a lot of the overtones, which is good for practising in a constrained environment. I don't think it helps if you're practising your 'touch', say as in jazz riding; you need to be able to hear the overtones and feel the response of the cymbal resonating to properly evaluate your feel...

[OLe]

All I can say is: Use caution! I put ducttape on a ride once, and have been unable to remove the residue of it after i wanted to remove it. If you leave the tape on for too long my experience is that it might leave permanent marks. This will probably vary from tape to tape, but I reckon I would try out moon gel or some other purpose-made product before I brought out the old roll of tape. Good luck!

[jazzgregg]

Think of taping is a way of tuning your cymbal. There is nothing wrong with it and I encourage it.

One of the biggest detractions you will come across will be 'if you need tape, you don't have the right cymbal', which is crap. What if the sound you want is that cymbal, but with tape?=)

But duct tape will give you some residue, that's for sure. Try gaffer's tape.

Also, for where to put it. Start by putting some over one side where the bell meets the bow (underneath, of course). This kills some of the high overtones. You could also try more opposite where you first put tape. Start with that and see if it works.

G

[hauk]

i would never put duct tape on my drums or cymbals, cause the residue's gotta be near impossible to get off...
IMO, you'd be much better off with masking tape or painters tape. they both stay on when you want them to, but come off when you do as well. as for the concept of taping it at all, why not? i've never done it, but it seems like a nice way to control overtones and the like. i'm pretty sure in other threads here i've heard about pros taping rides to "tame" them

[jazzgregg]

i would never put duct tape on my drums or cymbals, cause the residue's gotta be near impossible to get off...
IMO, you'd be much better off with masking tape or painters tape. they both stay on when you want them to, but come off when you do as well. as for the concept of taping it at all, why not? i've never done it, but it seems like a nice way to control overtones and the like. i'm pretty sure in other threads here i've heard about pros taping rides to "tame" them

Yeah, trust me, the residue IS near impossible to get off! As for its use, it does exactly that, controls overtones. People who immediately write off taping are selling themselves short indeed. And you are quite right, many famous drummers do so as well.

G

[Supersteve]

Get a Saluda. You can say how much wash you want.

[biscut]

I saw a jazz show recently and the drummer had tape on a couple of his Istanbuls.
A flat ride seemed to have several to a half dozen pieces of tape.

I just started experimenting with gaffers tape this week.

If you're not happy with a cymbal's sound, try tape before selling it especially if it's a good brand/model cymbal.

[AllTheCoolNamesAreTaken]

So jazzgreg are you saying not to use gaffer's tape b/c it leaves residue, or use it b/c it doesn't leave residue?

I've never tried this on a cymbal but I know that acetone (nail polish remover) and even rubbing alcohol remove tape residue. Would either damage the cymbal?

My teacher's practice kit is duct-taped to hell and back. And I like the sound of his toms better than mine. They're so boom-y. There are people who will tell you that even moongel is wrong - why would you kill the resonance of your drumset, blah blah - so I take that stuff with a grain of salt.

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

Rubbing alchohol works OK for some residue. It depends. Acetone didn't work too well for me. Cooking oil worked decently. You could also try something like Goo Gone.

As for dampening your cymbal-

Have you tried adding an extra felt washer, or using a larger diameter one? Have you tried tightening the wingnut a little more? You could always just throw a sock on it. I did that recently and it worked pretty well. No residue.

[KzSgDrummer]

Not much new to add, but I have tape on three of my roughly five main cymbals. Not a lot of it, but I like my cymbals on the bigger, more full and explosive side, but I still want to be able to bring them into the studio, so that's where the tape helps. I generally put it mid way on the cymbal (two to three pieces maybe 6" in length), so that way most every tone is being reduced in volume equally, although tape does naturally cut out the higher end shimmer more than the low end.

[Quadruple Groove]

haha, that is so random

"Hey man, my ride has too much wash.."
"Well..you could throw a sock on it?"

[KzSgDrummer]

Well, in ?uestlove's case, he's resorted to putting a whole towel over his ride before..

[jazzgregg]

So jazzgreg are you saying not to use gaffer's tape b/c it leaves residue, or use it b/c it doesn't leave residue?

I've never tried this on a cymbal but I know that acetone (nail polish remover) and even rubbing alcohol remove tape residue. Would either damage the cymbal?

My teacher's practice kit is duct-taped to hell and back. And I like the sound of his toms better than mine. They're so boom-y. There are people who will tell you that even moongel is wrong - why would you kill the resonance of your drumset, blah blah - so I take that stuff with a grain of salt.

I was saying to use gaffer's tape because it won't leave residue. I can see how I wasn't clear on that, sorry man.

Tape on drums is wrong, that's what your drum key is for, with cymbals you don't have that option, hence 'tape tuning'.
G

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

haha, that is so random

"Hey man, my ride has too much wash.."
"Well..you could throw a sock on it?"

Hah! It was a random experience for me. I was cleaning some things up in my room and the sock somehow ended up on the ride. I decided to give it a try and voila! It was fun. It's not on there anymore though. heheh But hey... some people like to put pillows in their kick... why not a sock on the ride? hahahah

[syaoran05]

i practice at a rehearsal studio and that studio has this ride that has all wash and no ping, so what i do, since i go there usually after school, is to make the ride "wear" my polo shirt. it kills all the excess wash [its a jazz ride most probably, i play grunge with my current band] and gives some extra ping. and yeah, no tapes, and very portable :P

[fourstringdrums]

I used to use those round felt pieces you put on chair/table legs so you don't scuff the floor. They're less noticeable visually than tape and leave less of a mark when you take them off.

You may want to try something like taking an old shirt, cutting it so you can bunch it up enough to fit inside your bell, taping it so it doesn't unravel, and then cutting a hole through the center so you can mount it over your stand, then put the cymbal back.

[Stu_Strib]

I can't imagine using tape on crash cymbals (unless you are using jazz crashy rides), but Gregg keened me in on taping ride cymbals for sure.

I wasn't happy with the stick definition of a certain majorly hyped model that rhymes with Handstompsanofull...and tape fixed it.

As for residue...I've purchased so many rides on eBay that have permanent stripes on the underside...my logic is that with tape, the metal doesn't oxydize and get the patina build up where the tape is. Once you remove the tape, the cymbal has that much time of non-patina build up to catch up to the rest of the cymbal.

[Deathmetalconga]

I would never, ever put duct tape on my drums or cymbals or my furniture or anywhere else visible. It looks cheap and ugly. Surely there must be a better way to do it.

www.terrasonus.com

[Batera945]

Duct tape!!!!!!!! that just doenst seem right! I would never do taht to my cymbals but then again thats me

[Slimeball]

Do Travis Barker and Taylor Hawkins put duct tape on their rides? Because they both use Zildjian Sweet rides, which I understand are very washy, but theirs are really pingy. I would never use tape though.

[Johnny from the block]

All I can say is: Use caution! I put ducttape on a ride once, and have been unable to remove the residue of it after i wanted to remove it. If you leave the tape on for too long my experience is that it might leave permanent marks.

use ether...............

[Raymond Bloom]

There's absolutely nothing wrong about putting tape on cymbals, if you're playing jazz, that's a very common thing to do to controll too wasy rides etc!

[T.Underhill]

I've used duct tape on a washy ride before and it cut it back and still sounded good so I see nothing wrong with it. The only downside is the residue it leaves after years of being stuck on there. I'm not getting rid of it and no one sees it anyway so what do I care.

[Witchdoctor J]

I have experimented with tape on some cymbals, and while it can help control the wash, I've also found that it can suck something out of the character of the cymbal as well. Experimenting with different stick types is a good way to adjust the sound of your ride cymbal (in addition to the way you are hitting it). Another is to have a friend play your kit while you stand in front of it. A cymbal that sounds too washy, may sound great when heard from a different perspective.

[Mr. Pasquini]

Helps my dream ride out a little bit. I play without it now because the wash works well when I play jazz. The tape just shuts it up a little bit.

[BoxcarDrummer182]

depends. if you're going to want controlled crashes, than go for it. if you look at hitting hard and projecting forget about it. and on the rides, if you want a lot of stick deff. than i'd say maybe three or four pieces. but if you're wanting wash and crashing, than i'd say no. in my opinion on the bottom and top hats, it sounds best. but it's up to you to expierement the way you want, whatever floats your boat.-boxcar

[ledzepjb]

Play around with it yourself, it the only way to figure out your preference.

[Steamer]

I personally do not like tape on cymbals period and never have in over 35 years of playing gigs and playing various cymbals. I always opt for testing and selecting cymbals with good stick definition with a wash that never gets out of control or overpowers the stick even when played hard. That's what floats my boat others can do what works for them.

[Porker69]

I would use those Vater Buzz kill thing basically the same as moongels but more tacky and less ugly (just a little black circle). I would opt for that over tape just because duct tape makes everything look so crappy.