Seating Reso heads?

sleepcascade

Junior Member
Just a quick question for you guys, do you seat your reso heads as well as your drumside heads? Really as basic as that, ill probably go ahead and do it but wanted some input. Also, feel free to add any comments on seating you might find interesting. Thanks...
 
I never do. I let them break in over a couple days of playing & I always avoid changing a head the day of a gig.

I have ruined a few heads trying to seat them using the old high tension CPR method. Never again. Most modern heads are good to play right out of the box. Like a set of guitar strings, they are going to stretch some, but pushing the issue manually through seating them really isn't necessary & it's relatively easy to mess one up pre-stretching it with excess force.

Just my humble opinion based on experience though.
 
I never do. I let them break in over a couple days of playing & I always avoid changing a head the day of a gig.

I have ruined a few heads trying to seat them using the old high tension CPR method. Never again. Most modern heads are good to play right out of the box. Like a set of guitar strings, they are going to stretch some, but pushing the issue manually through seating them really isn't necessary & it's relatively easy to mess one up pre-stretching it with excess force.

Just my humble opinion based on experience though.

Are you speaking of just reso heads here, or both sides?
 
I do. I seat both sides. I'll then tension the heads right up and leave 'em for a bit (usually overnight). Then I unwind the whole thing back to finger tight and start the tuning process.

I've read a few diferent ways since joining the forums. Some say seat, others say never seat, some say tension up and leave before tuning, others don't reccommend it. Me, I just continue to do it the way I was taught many years ago. Never had a problem seating. It's just a firm push in the centre of the head....no need to jump on the thing. If you're ruining heads by seating, you're pushing too hard.......simple.

From what I can gather, the jury's still out on what is "correct". But in my experience, seating and over tensioning in order to stretch the head out a bit, works.
 
"Seating" heads is not necessary. In 45 years of drumming I've never "seated" heads but once, as an experiment. It did not make my tuning last longer, it just reduced the life of the heads.

It's also recommended against by Aquarian and Evans (or more exactly by Gatzen, who was in on the design of many of the Evans heads).

"Seating" is a fetish encouraged by the Drum Tuning Bible, one reason I never recommend that place to newbish drummers. Tune 'em up, play on 'em for a day or two, retune, and you're good to go.
 
I use Evans heads and do seat both the batter and resonant sides, but not as aggressively as I did using Remo products. With Evans heads all I do is get them up to pitch and then lightly press the middle of the head with my palm, then I re-tune. Simple as that.

Dennis
 
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