Floor tom tuning issue

D

drummindan8484

Senior Member
About a month ago I bought a pack of Evans EC2's for my toms after attempting to tune the stock heads which ruined the tone of them. The Evans heads worked wonders for the overall sound of the kit, however, my floor tom seems to go "out of tune" more so than the mounted toms. I haven't had to retune the mounted toms at all since changing the heads, but the floor tom for some reason doesn't hold exactly where I want it. Since I still haven't changed the stock resonant head, would this help? My band has our first gig next month so I want this thing to sound good.
 
It sounds like perhaps some of your tension rods fit in the slots so smooth that there's no friction to keep them in place. I had a drum that had two lugs like this, and I solved it by finding nuts for the offending tension rods, and then tightening those against the lug when the tuning was set.

Some snare drummers suffered this on their snares when they kept pounding in one place - the tension rods at that point would tend to loosen up.
 
Bo Eder said:
It sounds like perhaps some of your tension rods fit in the slots so smooth that there's no friction to keep them in place. I had a drum that had two lugs like this, and I solved it by finding nuts for the offending tension rods, and then tightening those against the lug when the tuning was set.

Some snare drummers suffered this on their snares when they kept pounding in one place - the tension rods at that point would tend to loosen up.
Click to expand...

Bo, that's the best idea I've heard in a long time. Sort of a small Jam Nut to speak. I was gonna say "Tight Screw" since I put some on my snare recently. I'm gonna pick some up and try.
 
Nodiggie said:
Bo, that's the best idea I've heard in a long time. Sort of a small Jam Nut to speak. I was gonna say "Tight Screw" since I put some on my snare recently. I'm gonna pick some up and try.
Click to expand...

I can't take credit for the idea. I've seen guys do that for a long time, and Stan at Pro Drum was the one who put some on one of my drums when it was having that problem. If you do this though, you'll want to be sure to make sure you can find nuts that match the thread pitch of your tension rods - so this would make it difficult to find these types of nuts at say, Home Depot. You'll probably have to start at a drum shop first.
 
Haha, same problem here too, and with the EC2s on my floor tom. I had them all snug and sounding good, got to a gig and about 3 of them had backed all the way out lol! It's a cheap, old kit though so i just tightened them back down and now they seem to be okay. not great, but okay.

new set this week anyhow, so i'm not going to worry much about it. i like those ec2 heads though. nice, warm tone that can be a bit punchy when you need them to be.
 
Bo Eder said:
I can't take credit for the idea. I've seen guys do that for a long time, and Stan at Pro Drum was the one who put some on one of my drums when it was having that problem. If you do this though, you'll want to be sure to make sure you can find nuts that match the thread pitch of your tension rods - so this would make it difficult to find these types of nuts at say, Home Depot. You'll probably have to start at a drum shop first.
Click to expand...

No problemo, been in Maintenance for over 25years so I understand fully. We have a specialty fastener shop here in town. I will gage the pitch and try some. thx man
 
Skwerly said:
Haha, same problem here too, and with the EC2s on my floor tom. I had them all snug and sounding good, got to a gig and about 3 of them had backed all the way out lol! It's a cheap, old kit though so i just tightened them back down and now they seem to be okay. not great, but okay.

new set this week anyhow, so i'm not going to worry much about it. i like those ec2 heads though. nice, warm tone that can be a bit punchy when you need them to be.
Click to expand...

I tried those EC2's and thought they were great for that one kind of sound. I usually like my heads to go from ringy to thuddy depending on what I'm going for, but the EC2's just gave me that pre-EQ'd jazz fusion-y sound. It sounds great when other guys use 'em, but just not my cup of tea. Too many years playing nothing but coated Ambassadors or something... I'm glad you're diggin' 'em.
 
It's taken me a while, but they are growing on me. We'll see. The new set comes with completely different heads so I'm in a whole other ball game next week. :p

I have kept a G1 head on the set for comparison, just to see how the same toms sound side by side with another head. The g1 is definitely brighter and ringier, but it's also a tad louder at the same time which is good for live play, but i must say i think i like the tone of the EC2s a tad better. At least for now. :)
 
What everyone else said ... and... change the resonant head to something good. Peace and goodwill.
 
The fact that your floor tom is detuning imo has nothing to do with lugs. You guys are trying to tune the tom too low and thus detuning occurs. Try tuning your batter up a bit and tune your reso lower much like a bass drum tuning. Do this and you will get what you want.
Rack toms like 10, 12 are the opposite batter is slightly lower pitch than reso or both are the same.
 
I use the Jeff Ocheltree method on my toms whereby I pitch my reso's "wayyy up!" as Jeff would say, and tune my batters low (ensuring the pitch intervals between batter and reso are relative) I've found this works for my particular drums (Premier Club circa 1980 three ply shells, two ply re-ring). That method may or may not work for you depending on what drums you have.

Just my input,

Kev

Edit: I should mention I'm using Remo Emperor coateds on the batters and Ambassador clears on the resos.
 
K.Howden said:
I use the Jeff Ocheltree method on my toms whereby I pitch my reso's "wayyy up!" as Jeff would say, and tune my batters low (ensuring the pitch intervals between batter and reso are relative) I've found this works for my particular drums (Premier Club circa 1980 three ply shells, two ply re-ring). That method may or may not work for you depending on what drums you have.

Just my input,

Kev

Edit: I should mention I'm using Remo Emperor coateds on the batters and Ambassador clears on the resos.
Click to expand...

if you tune both heads the same it'll reso a lot longer and sometimes overtones come into play. that's why they recommend a tad higher on the reso than the batter, because the different frequencies won't allow the reverberation to go forever. also helps with snare buzz. :)
 
drummindan8484 said:
I tune them both to the same pitch, but I tried tuning a little higher and it seems to be better.
Click to expand...

You could offset by tuning your reso higher but I wouldn't, I would experiment the other way in order to get a lower pitch from the drum. Tune your reso lower still (very small increments) and see what you get, you will get more bottom from the drum.
I've had success with this and doing it for a long time. Kick drum and floor tom having a higher batter pitch and rack toms having a lower batter pitch or equal in pitch.
 
It's probably the way the head is constructed. Don't forget to overtighten the head and leave it that way for awhile (24 hours is recommended) to seat it properly and push down in the center while you are tightening it. That usually gets rid of uneven head tensioning problems. Then tension it back down to wrinkle and try to tune it for good. Guitarists do this with strings, too.

On the subject of batter and reso equalling or differing in tuning, if they equal, you get a very long sustain or resonant open sound. Tensioning the bottom higher will give a more succinct or punchier sound, if that is what you want (Jeff Ochletree/John Bonham/Big Band Jazz style). I like it myself. Beware, though that when you tune the reso higher, it will sound good in ranges that are in musical harmonics with the batter and dead in ranges that are not. So you will go through some ranges that make the drum just sound like crap. You can normally go higher with the reso and get out of those ranges, though. I do like Ochletree suggests and keep my resos a good bit higher than the batters.
 
Strangelove said:
I like it myself. Beware, though that when you tune the reso higher, it will sound good in ranges that are in musical harmonics with the batter and dead in ranges that are not.
Click to expand...

I think that's such an important thing that's overlooked with tuning!

lot of people I speak to say they don't tune their heads to specific pitches because it's either too much hassle or isn't needed. I disagree with that whole heartedly with that way of thinking, as like any other instrument it produces specific pitches at specific tensions that each have specific frequency (440hz for a A pitch example) and as you say if those frequencies clash harmonically the drum won't sound as pleaseant as it would if the heads were harmonically relative.

Hope everyone is well,

Kev
 
K.Howden said:
I think that's such an important thing that's overlooked with tuning!

lot of people I speak to say they don't tune their heads to specific pitches because it's either too much hassle or isn't needed. I disagree with that whole heartedly with that way of thinking, as like any other instrument it produces specific pitches at specific tensions that each have specific frequency (440hz for a A pitch example) and as you say if those frequencies clash harmonically the drum won't sound as pleaseant as it would if the heads were harmonically relative.

Hope everyone is well,

Kev
Click to expand...

This is what seperates a good tuning from a great tuning. The notes each head sings compared to the note that the opposite head sings......this is where you really dial in your sound. This is where an experienced tuner goes the extra miles to get a great tuning. If you stop when you get the heads evenly tensioned, you really didn't finish tuning your drum. You have to make the different notes compliment one another. I use octaves. My reso is a full octave above my batter.
The "dead" zones that drums go through while bringing the heads up to tension....that phenomonen is known as phase cancellation aka comb filtering. All drum tuners need to understand this physical phenomonen that happens when sound waves from different sources collide. Frequencies can and do cancel each other out, resulting in a dead sounding drum. (if the drum is tuned within the "dead" zone. Tuning one head differently will move it beyond that zone). Put me down as a much tighter reso tuner too. The drums sound better and carry further unmiced to my ear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top