haroldo_psf
Senior Member
Hi all. First of all, I am a noob. I have owned mykit for about a year. I have watched Bob Gatzen on youtube a million times. I have read online guides, I have read drummerworld threads. This helped me tune my drums while they were already in the ball park since I bought them, as the drum shop tuned them for me before I took them home, so I just had to basically make sure the lugs and each head were even as time when by, as the tones were basically already defined and I just had to maintain it.
However, for the first time, I changed the original Pearl heads that came with the kit (Vision birch, 8", 10", 12", 16" toms) with Evans G1 clear for reso, and G2 coated for batter.
My issue is that, when starting from scratch, I found that I didn't really know what the exact tone should be for each tom. Most tunning guides just say "tighted until it starts to resonate, then even the lugs". Well, there is a huge area of achievable tones in the "resonating area".
For instance, when I was done tunning them, my 10" and my 12" sounded the same! I knew immediatelly something was off. I could hear a descending tone difference going from the 8" to the 10", but between 10" and 12" it was flat. Either my 8" and 10" are too low, or my 12" is too high.
I tossed a coin, and decided the 12" was too high, and turned it down a quarter turn per lug, and evened out the lug tones from there. I could now here a descending tone difference between the 10" amd 12", but was that tone difference enough?
Now, what is THE tone that each tom should have?
How much tone difference should there be between tom to tom?
About sustain...When I tuned the bottom head close in tone to the top, the tom had a nice looong sustain after a hit, like BAMMMMMMMMMmmmmm. When I tuned it a little higher, it sounded nice and defined, BAMMM!
How much sustain is right? (please don't tell me "preference", just give me an answer for crying out loud)? If it is really preference, than give me YOUR preferece? How much sustain is normal for a good sounding rock kit? Do I want the toms humming away after fills going into the first and second beat of the next bar? Or should they speak their piece and be quiet after wards? What is good when you are recording or playing live?
Should I go buy a drum dial? Does this thing come with a tension table that says: 10" tom should be roughly at this tension, 12" inch at this tension, etc? Does it come with any instructions guidelines as well? I'm not interested in just finding out what the tensions are, I need to find out what it should be.
The problem I have is, as noob, I have no preference. I don't know what is good, what is bad, what is typical, and what isn't.
So, when look for threads here, 99% of the time the answer is "preference". Well, I don't have a preference. Can someone at least steer me in the right direction, pleeeeeeeease?
However, for the first time, I changed the original Pearl heads that came with the kit (Vision birch, 8", 10", 12", 16" toms) with Evans G1 clear for reso, and G2 coated for batter.
My issue is that, when starting from scratch, I found that I didn't really know what the exact tone should be for each tom. Most tunning guides just say "tighted until it starts to resonate, then even the lugs". Well, there is a huge area of achievable tones in the "resonating area".
For instance, when I was done tunning them, my 10" and my 12" sounded the same! I knew immediatelly something was off. I could hear a descending tone difference going from the 8" to the 10", but between 10" and 12" it was flat. Either my 8" and 10" are too low, or my 12" is too high.
I tossed a coin, and decided the 12" was too high, and turned it down a quarter turn per lug, and evened out the lug tones from there. I could now here a descending tone difference between the 10" amd 12", but was that tone difference enough?
Now, what is THE tone that each tom should have?
How much tone difference should there be between tom to tom?
About sustain...When I tuned the bottom head close in tone to the top, the tom had a nice looong sustain after a hit, like BAMMMMMMMMMmmmmm. When I tuned it a little higher, it sounded nice and defined, BAMMM!
How much sustain is right? (please don't tell me "preference", just give me an answer for crying out loud)? If it is really preference, than give me YOUR preferece? How much sustain is normal for a good sounding rock kit? Do I want the toms humming away after fills going into the first and second beat of the next bar? Or should they speak their piece and be quiet after wards? What is good when you are recording or playing live?
Should I go buy a drum dial? Does this thing come with a tension table that says: 10" tom should be roughly at this tension, 12" inch at this tension, etc? Does it come with any instructions guidelines as well? I'm not interested in just finding out what the tensions are, I need to find out what it should be.
The problem I have is, as noob, I have no preference. I don't know what is good, what is bad, what is typical, and what isn't.
So, when look for threads here, 99% of the time the answer is "preference". Well, I don't have a preference. Can someone at least steer me in the right direction, pleeeeeeeease?