a few basic rookie questions......

rbracch

Junior Member
Hi there,

How's it goin. I'm relatively new to the drums, and I was wondering if someone could help me with these rookie questions. Many, many thanks....

1.) Once I place brand-new heads (resonant and batter) on a drum, how often can I tune and re-tune individual drums to achieve different sounds? I don’t plan on re-tuning every week, it's just that I'd like to be able to change the drum sounds every once in a while. Will re-tuning too often cause the heads to go "dead" and/or lose their "punch"?

2.) Do the toms need to be "seated" using the same method as seating the snare (fist in center of head, put all your weight on it)? Or, can I skip the "seating process" with toms? If I do need to "seat" the tom drum, must I seat both the batter and the resonant side?

3.) I recently messed up by putting on a brand new batter-side head, tuning it, and then realizing that I forgot to put the "half-circle mounting arm" piece on first! Would it mess up the head if I took the lugs off completely, removed the new head, put the "mounting arm" on, and then re-tuned the drum? I haven't played or used the drum at all yet - I put it on last night (Sat. 2/12/10).

Thanks again,
rbracch
 
Hi there,

How's it goin. I'm relatively new to the drums, and I was wondering if someone could help me with these rookie questions. Many, many thanks....

1.) Once I place brand-new heads (resonant and batter) on a drum, how often can I tune and re-tune individual drums to achieve different sounds? I don’t plan on re-tuning every week, it's just that I'd like to be able to change the drum sounds every once in a while. Will re-tuning too often cause the heads to go "dead" and/or lose their "punch"?

2.) Do the toms need to be "seated" using the same method as seating the snare (fist in center of head, put all your weight on it)? Or, can I skip the "seating process" with toms? If I do need to "seat" the tom drum, must I seat both the batter and the resonant side?

3.) I recently messed up by putting on a brand new batter-side head, tuning it, and then realizing that I forgot to put the "half-circle mounting arm" piece on first! Would it mess up the head if I took the lugs off completely, removed the new head, put the "mounting arm" on, and then re-tuned the drum? I haven't played or used the drum at all yet - I put it on last night (Sat. 2/12/10).

Thanks again,
rbracch

1. Re-tune at will. Heads do go 'dead' after a while, but from my experience, this is usually due to them being played over a period of time. The stretching etc will have an impact only over time. Tune as often as you want.

2. Seat ALL heads on ALL drums.

3. I'm assuming you're talking about the RIMS mount here. Taking off the head, replacing the mount and then re-tuning is your only option here, if you want to mount your tom on the tom holder provided. Your other option would be to sit the tom in a snare stand. But the answer is NO, taking the head off and replacing the mount won't hurt the head.
 
1.) Once I place brand-new heads (resonant and batter) on a drum, how often can I tune and re-tune individual drums to achieve different sounds? I don’t plan on re-tuning every week, it's just that I'd like to be able to change the drum sounds every once in a while. Will re-tuning too often cause the heads to go "dead" and/or lose their "punch"?

Re-tune as you need to. Really tight tuning will wear heads out a little quicker, but not enough to matter to you. It's more important that you tune correctly, using a "crisscrossing" pattern so that you don't stretch the heads in any one direction or the other while tuning them.

2.) Do the toms need to be "seated" using the same method as seating the snare (fist in center of head, put all your weight on it)? Or, can I skip the "seating process" with toms? If I do need to "seat" the tom drum, must I seat both the batter and the resonant side?

Yes. Seat them. That said, I usually don't put ALL my weight on the head, but merely press down with my fist a little. You can also just tune them way up and leave them overnight if you have the time.
 
Back
Top