New heads bother me.

Bertram

Silver Member
Hi.

I've changed all my batter heads today and i just can't figure out the tuning on this 10' tom with 6 lugs. Sometimes it seems like 4 lugs has the same pitch but the 2 last ones can't get near it, though they are looser than the other lugs they have a higher sound.

I've got a Remo Amb on the 10
Remo Emp on the 12
Pinstribe on the 16
Controlled sound on snare.
They're all Coated.

It is first time i buy new heads, and my instructor adviced me to buy theese after i show'd him my set once.

The snare is allright but even when tuned medium high it has a deep sound... Should i just crank it down?

also, to the toms. I see alot of people talking about high reso low batter. My set came with tuned heads and the reso's are pretty tight. Should i have them tightened equally?
I know the basics to tune and sometimes i find it working, but the 10 drives me nuts.

Anyways when the toms are off the set and i slam it, it sounds way better. When they're mounted on my bass, they really sound dead and the decay is shortened for huge ammounts.

Sorry for writing a book here but i got way too many questions..

Bertram
 
HEY GUYS! im so happy... after three days of ustoppable tuning i got it down! the three toms are now tuned to eachother and it sounds way better than before. The batters are a little lower than the reso, but it's not much. I usually play jazz or soft rock, so i want the high tones with lots of resonance.
 
Way to go! you didn't give up. Conquering tuning is all about trial and error. Keep it up you will become better and faster. Practice tuning will increase your confidence level, you will reach the point where you can pick up any drum and tune it to perfection.
 
You have different heads on the toms?
I've never heard of someone doing that.
 
You have different heads on the toms?
I've never heard of someone doing that.

A lot of drummers do. I assume you're really pointing out the different heads on the toms, because having kick, snare and tom heads different is very common.

I'm not concerned with having a uniform look to my drum heads. Definitely not over getting a better sound since I'm the only one that can see them.

I do keep my resos consistent though.

Right now I have Ambassadors on my toms with the exception of an Emperor on the 18 floor tom.
 
I have two types of batter heads, they are similar, evans G2 coated and fibreskyn on the 14, 16. Hardest thing is too get over the visual, when you have a set like mine that is as easy to look at as it is to play, it tugs at you to not have it all match, but my ears dont lie.

To the original poster, what kind of kit do yopu have? Usually the 10 is the easiest to tune.
 
Yamaha Stage Custom Birch sizes:
10' rack tom 12' rack tom 16' floor tom 14' snare 22' bass
I fianlly made a sound on the 10' that sounded somewhat reasonable.. but a little to high, ill keep it this way untill i'll learn to be better with this tuning.. don't want to mess it all up again.. :D
 
I pretty much have all the drum set and cymbals I want, so I spend my time tuning and learning to make my kit sound good in whatever room I'm playing in.

There is not really any "messing it up" to worry about.

Tuning and getting your instrument to sound good in the space your playing in is a on-going never ending process.

Finding the sweet spot on a particular drum though is worth the effort. To a certain extent, when a particular drum is tuned to make it's best sound, in almost all situations, that's the best tuning for that drum. Realizing that sound in different rooms and sound reinforced live situations and in the studio are a different animal is what will let you trust your instincts on getting your sounds in your normal playing environment.

If you have to tune your guitar all the time, you got tune your drums too.

It's all good.
 
I ain't playing gigs now, and won't in a nearby future, im not even in a band atm. And we mostly practice in a club, not even on my kit. So getting it to sound good in my room is the only thing i worry about.

Thanks for every comment.
 
The way you were describing some lugs being looser than others and having a hard time getting it in tune sounds like you may not have seated the head properly. If this is your first time changing heads (I think you said that) then you should probably ask your teacher, or check out some videos. Tuning heads can be the biggest headache in the world. It's difficult because there really is no standard to tune to like on a guitar, and there are so many things that can affect the sound. You may never get the sound you want just because those heads are not going to give you that sound. Like someone else said it's all about trial and error and finding the sweet spot for your drum. I've taken hours to get a single drum into tune how I wanted it. I might suggest getting a drum tuner. You're still going to have to be doing a lot of trial and error but at least the tuner will help with getting the drum in tune with itself faster.
 
I am absolutely sure that they're tuned and totally seated... I've seen tons of videos, and when i hit about an inch from each lug it makes the same sound all arround the drum. i think that my 12' is getting near a B or something like that.. though i can't be sure.
The bottom heads are also tuned correct. Though it's first time changing heads i've been messing arround tuning the old ones..
 
I am absolutely sure that they're tuned and totally seated... I've seen tons of videos, and when i hit about an inch from each lug it makes the same sound all arround the drum. i think that my 12' is getting near a B or something like that.. though i can't be sure.
The bottom heads are also tuned correct. Though it's first time changing heads i've been messing arround tuning the old ones..

Cool just making sure you got the basics down. It takes a while to get an ear for drum tuning, some people can tune drums very quickly and get them sounding great, while others (like myself) it takes longer and have trouble making them sound the way I want.
 
It takes ages for me for too. But i took the time, and tried to learn it on my own at first. Went decently... bad. Asked my instructor and he learned me all the basics.. It's not that hard.. the hard thing is to get the toms to fit with eachother.
 
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