Tuning Coated Ambassadors (Sounds like paper)

drumr_102

Senior Member
I just bought 12" and 16" coated ambassadors yesterday for my Yamaha Rock Tour toms. I switched from pinstripes because they were too dead for me and the ambassadors sound really good as far as resonance goes, but I can't quite find the tone or note I want and it sounds somewhat like hitting paper. Do they need to be tight? any suggestions? thanks
 
I just bought 12" and 16" coated ambassadors yesterday for my Yamaha Rock Tour toms. I switched from pinstripes because they were too dead for me and the ambassadors sound really good as far as resonance goes, but I can't quite find the tone or note I want and it sounds somewhat like hitting paper. Do they need to be tight? any suggestions? thanks

I'm guessing you don't have them tensioned enough or they are tensioned unevenly. That seems to be pretty common with single ply heads.
 
Although I am an Aquarian user I do prefer 1 ply heads instead of 2 ply and find on my particular set that after finger tightening all the lugs that in 1/2 turn steps about 1 full turn on each lug seems to get the toms to there sweet spot with just a fine tuning by ear to get all the lugs singing in harmony.
 
Hmmm... Maybe they're uneven, but I did take some time making sure they weren't. Is it harder than a 2-ply head to make them sound good? This is my first time using a single ply and maybe I need to change my approach.

Right now I have them tuned higher than I want because I thought it would fix it, but I prefer them about where tard suggests
 
When I hear the phrase "papery sounding", right away I think that the heads are too loose, but maybe not by much. This is even more evident on larger diameter drums like the bass drum and floor toms. Coated Ambassador heads are really great heads. I use them on both the resonant side and batter side of my toms on one of my kits.

Give each tension rod another 1/16th or an 1/8th of a turn more and see if it makes an improvement.

Dennis
 
When I hear the phrase "papery sounding", right away I think that the heads are too loose, but maybe not by much. This is even more evident on larger diameter drums like the bass drum and floor toms. Coated Ambassador heads are really great heads. I use them on both the resonant side and batter side of my toms on one of my kits.

Give each tension rod another 1/16th or an 1/8th of a turn more and see if it makes an improvement.

Dennis

This was pretty much the case and I also tuned the resonant heads lower and now they sound a lot better. It's hard to tell because they're coated, but i think they had to be tuned more above wrinkle than the pinstripes though. Maybe because they're thinner.

They sound way better though and I love the resonance opposed to the "dead" pinstripes
 
Trying different tensions on the resonant head can produce interesting results. For years I tuned them to the same pitch as the batter head. Then I was reading that Bonham had his resonant heads tuned higher and I tried it. I really loved the resulting sound! I play single ply coated heads (Ludwig Weathermaster mediums) and they do take some getting use to. For years I played clear heads or CS and the single ply, coated heads really tune differently.
 
I liked the reso higher than with the pinstripes. It seemed to give it more attack, but I think I prefer lower for the ambassadors. At least for the 16" tom. Maybe I'll tweak the 12" reso and see what I can get out of it
 
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In less than a page,you've found that coated ambassadors sound and respond better at higher tensions than pinstripes. When you get the right reso tension, they will begin to "roar", like Bonham's kit. At even higher tensions (short of choking) they will "sing" like Copeland's kit. You will notice this in the driver's seat, and even more at a distance.
 
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