drums don't sound good

TheDrummerBoy95

Junior Member
Hey,everyone.
I own a Yamaha Stage Custom kit. It has the fusion sizes,which means that it has a smaller bass drum (20x17 inches).
I have "Remo Pinstripe Clear" heads on toms and floor tom,and "Remo Powerstroke 3" on snare drum and bass drum.

Still,my drums don't sound good!
I don't know what to do. Is there something wrong with my drum tuning?! I heard a lot of people saying that Yamaha drums kick ass,but with these I start to think that my old Peavey drum set sounds better.

The snare drum is quite awful,and I can't make the floor tom to sound right.

What should I do?

Thank you :)
 
WOW, can't believe no one has posted on this.

Because you say you have Fusion sizes, I would suggest trying some G1 or G2 coated batters. I don't think the pinstripes are allowing the shell to reveal all its potential as a drum in this case.

As far as tuning goes, that's up to you. I would remove both heads and put the reso on first and tighten just till you get the wrinkles out. Then do the same to the top batter. Start tuning up from there till you get that warm resonant sustain. Remember, bottom reso is going to give you more or less sustain, top batter is going to give you pitch.

Tuning drums really is a labor of love at first. Once you get it down, it's just pure magic every time you do it. I love tuning drums. : )

Good luck to you...and most of all....HAVE FUN and stay encouraged!
 
Maybe it's because of the "colder" sound
of the birch ???

I had a mahogany drum before my birch
Sonor. The first thing I noticed is that the birch
in more open sounding , and less warm than mahogany...

Don't forget about the acoustic of the room...
Birch in some room sound great but can sound "toc toc"
in some room because of the boost in high/mid frequencies...

I had good luck tuning my toms a bit higher... Try tuning
your bass drum a bit higher too, and with that PS3, it should
punch pretty good... If not, try some coated heads to warm
the kit a little... For the floor tom, try 2 plys head for thr reso...

Good luck : )

Philippe
 
I agree with the previous two replies: try some coated heads. I personally can't stand the sound of Pinstripes!
 
try a remo coated ambassador on top (equivalent to an evans g1 coated) and a remo clear ambassador for reso (equivalent to a clear g1).

Personally I hate pinstripes. never will like them...ever.

Get them finger tight, then turn each side 1 half turn, then turn the reso head a little tighter and move your way on from there.

You can try a remo coated emperor ( evans g2 coated ) on top if you want, it just won't be as open as an ambassador but it's still good.
 
Dude, it's all in the tuning. Drum tuning is not a cut and dried task, there are many approaches. Stage Customs, while being an inexpensive set, are great shells, very true. I have a set. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be able to get a killer sound with them. Here's what I do, and I get a lot of compliments from respected musicians on my drum sound. This tuning should work for anything except jazz. Lay the drum on a carpet, batter side down. Lightly place your finger tip dead center of the reso head and tap the drumhead with a stick tip 1/2 inch from the lug. This will give you a harmonic like sound. Tap the drumhead near every lug screw, making sure your finger is dead center of the drum, and adjust the tension rods with your key so all the pitches sound exactly the same. When they all sing the same note, the drumhead is in tune with itself. Then you have to decide if it's too loose or too tight, and after any further tensioning, tune it again. When you get the reso head in the right range, it will really sing, and a fairly high note too I might add. Then you have to repeat for the batter head with one difference. You have to tune the batter head half as loose as the reso head. How you acheive that is by tuning it so the harmonics you hear on the reso head are 1 octave higher than the harmonics on the batter head. The reso side ends up being fairly tight, and the batter side ends up being more on the looser side, to move a lot of air. That's a good thing.
Next you have to figure in a whole set tuning. Say you have 4 toms, 10 12 14 16. I like to tune the 12 inch tom a fourth below the 10 inch tom. (to hear a fourth interval, imagine the song "Here comes the bride" Those 2 notes are a fourth apart) Then I like the 14 inch tom to be an octave below the 10" tom and the 16"tom to be an octave below the 12" tom. This is just one way to tune the set as a whole, but it will definitely work for most stuff. Drums are finicky instruments and there are no shortcuts to spending time tuning. I use clear ambassadors over clear ambassadors, no head tricks to make it sound fuller, just great tuning with zero muffling. It's all you need.
 
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