Can a drum still detune with drum locks?

williamsbclontz

Silver Member
I've gotten some lug locks for my snare and I love them, I still tune my snare before every gig though just because of habit. I'd like to get a set for my practice kit though so I don't have to worry about my kit going out of tune so often. I was planning on putting them on both the top and bottom heads. My question is will my drums still be able to go out of tune? Like if the heads are old enough won't they naturally detune over time from the sticks? And will I ever even need to worry about my resonant heads anymore after I put lug locks on them?
 
Yea, the heads will stretch and get brittle after a while. When I buy a new head I like to tap it off the drum and listen to the nice sound compared to the "dead" old head I just took off.
 
Yea, the heads will stretch and get brittle after a while. When I buy a new head I like to tap it off the drum and listen to the nice sound compared to the "dead" old head I just took off.

I figured that. What about the resonant head though? A lot of the time when my drums go out of tune I find that it's the bottom head. If I had drum locks, theoretically id never have to tune to bottom heads for a long time?
 
Well, here we go again with another Thing I knew nothing about - even though I have been playing for 45 years. :)

Lug locks. I saw this, read it, and went reading. I see Gibraltar has these plastic caps to put on the lug after tuning.

So my question is - how much of the time do drums detune from the lug moving, and how much of the time from head stretching? Do these lug locks actually significantly increase tuning stability?
 
Well, here we go again with another Thing I knew nothing about - even though I have been playing for 45 years. :)

Lug locks. I saw this, read it, and went reading. I see Gibraltar has these plastic caps to put on the lug after tuning.

So my question is - how much of the time do drums detune from the lug moving, and how much of the time from head stretching? Do these lug locks actually significantly increase tuning stability?

Well on my snare it's always going out of tune because I play so many rimshots. I've never used lug locks for toms though and I was just wondering about how well they work on resonant heads. For some reason my bottom heads always go loose, and I hate having to pick up and tune my floor toms every other time I practice

Plus at church I find the drums are detuning frequently too, and it's always the same 3 or 4 lugs every time. I don't consider myself a heavy hitter, but I don't hear as many people complaining about this very often, so I'm wondering if it's just me.....
 
I have had great luck with Tightscrew tension rods. Check them out.

http://www.tightscrew.com/

When I change resonant heads I play for an hour or two and find that they need a slight re-tuning and after that I usually don't have to re-tune for quite some time.
 
Yes, they can and will de tune but to a lesser extent . It May or may not require as much work to get em back in tune though . It all depends on drum design and construction and wood type as much as head choice and age of heads . As said above ...... your mileage will vary depending on so many variables. Unless your in a climate controlled roon/studio .... and I don’t mean just temperature , we’re also talking humidity levels ...... drums will always need tuning . Wood expands and contracts with temperature and or humidity swings regardless of the lugs being locked . Locks can help for sure but IMO they’re more useful on metal snares and other metal drums .
 
Yea I think climate has a lot to do with it. I live in a real swampy area and I try to cycle the air up while I'm out of the house to save money. Down here it's about 80-90% humidity almost all year around. It's even worse with my drums I travel with because almost half of my gigs are outside. I don't really know what to do, I just hate having to extensively tune every drum every time I play
 
AFAIK, drum locks only prevent the tension rods from moving. But this has less effect on the heads since they get stretched with each hit (the harder you hit the more it stretches) and/or by changes in temperature and humidity. The hoop itself, independent of the tension rods, can also bend depending on how hard you hit rimshots.

Tuning is a fact of life for acoustic musical instruments. In the studio, in which climate is stable, it's not unusual for me to have guitar players check their tuning for every take. Some times takes are even interrupted when strings go flat because of a lot of bending. Some instruments hold their tuning better, some don't.
 
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