Help ..head has ripples! . . .

[BellsOfRhymney]

It's tuned where I want (15" floor tom) and sounds ok, but has ripples near the edge, and mostly in one area. It's old so I'm thinkin' uneven bearing edge or maybe out-of-round ...should I just ignore it or be wigging out?

[That Guy]

I'm positive that you do it the right way but I have to ask just so we can narrow down the problem. Are you tuning your tom criss-cross method? Or are you moving in a clock or counter clockwise motion?

[Class A Drummer]

I had ripples on my head. It turned out that if i tightened the pegs with the ripples they went away. It also made the head sound much better, and have more sustain.

[BellsOfRhymney]

Are you tuning your tom criss-cross method?
Yep, criss-cross star pattern ...I'll try tightening in the area of the ripples and see what happens.

[fourstringdrums]

Do you tune really low? You may also have to tighten those lugs alittle higher to get the wrinkles out, and then tension the rest back down a bit to go to the pitch you want and even out the head.

[bojangleman]

im no expert...but if it sounds how you like it, keep it that way...the ripples arent hurting anything...so, i would pick around at different sounds..but if ya like it, just dont worry...


Alex

[BellsOfRhymney]

im no expert...but if it sounds how you like it, keep it that way...the ripples arent hurting anything...so, i would pick around at different sounds..but if ya like it, just dont worry...

yep, thats where I'm at ...it sounds neat to me so I'll just keep bangin' on it.

thanx all !!!

[dharma bum]

I would check whether it's seated well - I just put new heads on, and one tom had ripples I couldn't get rid of. I took the head off, reseated it, no problem. Also, I have an old Vistalie floor tom that's a bit out of round and that has ripples unless I tune it up so much I don't like the sound - so I tune it as best I can and live with the ripples.

[dom]

i have herd of people tuneing a snare perfect but the snare side head was rippled, they take a hair dryer to is and it helps. you might try it i dont know if it will work tho

[Acronomic]

I have ripples on the EC2 head on my 14" floor, and it sounds better than ever. I don't think it really matters...

[drumtechdad]

One thing to check is if the lug opposite the rippled area are on the tightish side. If so, loosen them a bit and increase tension on the rippled side.

Sometimes it's the lug opposite the problematic one that is causing a problem. Just a thought.

[pounder]

I also have been struggling with this problem of wrinkles in the batter head, and I can tell you it's not necessarily a problem associated with old heads.
I was getting ready for a gig last week and when I was tuning my toms, I was irritated to find an annoying buzz. I found out the batter head had a wrinkle or dimple and was causing the buzz.
Problem is, when I tuned the lug where the wrinkle was, it took my head higher than I wanted it. The buzz was gone, but the tom was now tuned too high. (I like a good deep "dong" sound, so I tuned my batter heads fairly low and my resonant heads slightly higher.)
I went out and bought new heads for my mounted toms, and now had the same problem with one of the other toms -- a buzz associated with a wrinkle. So it's not necessarily the age of the skins. I will try reseating the skins, as suggested below the next time this happens, but I think the bottom line is that when you get a wrinkle, all you can do it dial your lug up where it is wrinkled and until the dimpling is gone, and then dial down all the rest. Unfortunately, this violates another tuning principle: ensuring the head rings at an even pitch at each lug. What are ya gonna do? Shug.
Pounder

[nhzoso]

RRRRUFFLES HAVE RRRRIDGES : )

[Joe P]

RRRRUFFLES HAVE RRRRIDGES : )

Hahahaha! That made my day :)

And the ripples might just be that you had it tuned up, but you tuned down, and so the head is stretched?