Changed heads...

[Turbo6]

I have a cheap OSP drum set courtesy of Ebay. I thought Ive give them a try and see if good heads would make them playable. I've tried tuning them with the stock OSP single ply heads on top and bottom of the toms and it was a very papery sound. Also the overtones sucked pretty bad. So I bought some remO's and it was 110% improvement even with the junk plasitc heads. Then I bought some pinstripes thinking that would help even more but I was wrong. I think the junky heads actually sounded better with the muffle rings. Does that make any sense at all?? I would have expected pinstripes to make a world of difference but maybe Im just not doing something right. When I installed them I broke them in correctly by breaking the glue loose by pressing on the center of the head until all the crackling was gone. Then I loosened all the lugs and retorqued them to the tone I needed. The 16" floor tom is the worst. No matter how tight I go it still sounds like poop. Any have any advice? I could probably get sound clips tomorrow and post them, its too late tonight. The neighbors would castrate me most likely! Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!

[bighaibigdrums]

When you say sounds like poop what do you mean.

[Turbo6]

Poop... as in papery sounding like a slap rather than a smooth tone. I have a 6-pc setup with 11", 12" & 13" toms and 1 16" floor tom. The 13" drum sounds phenomenal but the floor tom sounds very slappy or papery almost like a junky head would sound when its really loose. So I kept cranking the batter head and it didnt change at all. Then I tried loosening and tightenning the res head but that didnt change the drum sound either. Maybe its just a junk drum.

EDIT: Here's a sound clip, please ricght click & save: Drums (http://www.designbydan.com/pt/drums.mov)

[Celereon]

My generic kit does that too.
Unfortunately I don't know why exactly...
But if it is any comfort, know that you are not alone :)

[dharma bum]

I think floor toms are the toughest to tune. Check to see whether the drum is out of round, and if the bearing edges are cut well. You may also try another head - like an Emperor, and try some tape or moongel if you need to deaden overtones a little.

[Turbo6]

I spent about 30 minutes on the floor tom last night. Its BETTER but not where I'd like it. I think it needs a better resonant head because the top head sounds fair but the bottom head sounds papery still. But I cranked the bottom head and completely retuned the top head until each lugs tone was identical and it seemed to kill some of annoying overtones. FLOOR TOMS SUCK SUCK SUCK! lol

Now I can see the difference between a nice Pearl kit versus cheap junky drum shells.

[JoeyWaters]

What reso head is on the floor tom? If it is the stock reso, I think we have located the 'poop sound' generator. Stock resos on cheaper drums are thin and completely dreadful. The smaller drums will sound OK with stock resos; the thinness of the head doesn't take over the drum sound as much. With the larger drums, the reso SO important to the sound of the drum because of the larger amount of air that you are pushing. Put an Ambassador or a G1 on there and then try it. I would even suggest trying a coated one-ply reso on the floor tom to increase warmth.

Or if you don't have stock resos, I have completely wasted everyone's time!

[Turbo6]

No you are right, no wasted time here. The stock 1-ply head is still on there and its definitely a poop machine. When you turn the drum upside down and hit it the res head sounds just plain bad. So clearly thats the main problem. When I order my next batch of stuff I will have to get a new reso head for the floor tom, Im liking the coated head idea.