I recently acquired a no name 1960's japanese lauan kit with a 20" kick with steel hoops and T-handle tension rods and it is so hard to tune for a number of reasons but primarily, in my opinion, it is the strength of the hoops. They take all the sensitivity out of tuning and totally eliminate the ability to put a little more tension on one lug to really fine tune.
My Catalina Rock kit with the 26" kick is the polar opposite of this. When tuning the batter, you can make big adjustments to one lug and it will have almost no effect on the adjacent lug/head tuning. I believe this to be due to the larger size and greater flexibility of the hoops.
Its almost like having 3 lugs on the kick because at any one time, its almost impossible to have more than 3 (it has 8 BTW) to really be doing any work. What I mean in when tightening up to where you want to be, by the time you have tightened 3 or 4, the rest just need to be snugged because the hoops are so stiff that the head is already tensioned at those lugs.
Thinking I might want to pass on this kit for this reason unless anyone has any suggestions. Wood hoops would be next but it was a $100 kit so probably not worth it. Heads are new though.
My Catalina Rock kit with the 26" kick is the polar opposite of this. When tuning the batter, you can make big adjustments to one lug and it will have almost no effect on the adjacent lug/head tuning. I believe this to be due to the larger size and greater flexibility of the hoops.
Its almost like having 3 lugs on the kick because at any one time, its almost impossible to have more than 3 (it has 8 BTW) to really be doing any work. What I mean in when tightening up to where you want to be, by the time you have tightened 3 or 4, the rest just need to be snugged because the hoops are so stiff that the head is already tensioned at those lugs.
Thinking I might want to pass on this kit for this reason unless anyone has any suggestions. Wood hoops would be next but it was a $100 kit so probably not worth it. Heads are new though.