BASS DRUM TUNING

Re: THE BASS DRUM TUNING THREAD

so muffing (putting pilow and stuff inside) is not neccesary? does the resonant side realy affects the sound?
 
Bass Drum Tuning

This is my first post.There was a drummer who was not happy with his Bass drum sound, he was using an Emad batter head on a 22". There were a few responses and they were all correct.
A)Tightning often improves over loosening
B) I like tune the bass to an E as well, it works.
C) You really need to match the Emad head with it's resonet Partner
D) Your pedal could be the problem, not the tuning.
and finally, don't fuss too much, I have many times in the past and it has often turned out that I made the wrong tuning decision, once that bass player kicks in much of what you thought was bothering you dissappears.
These are things I have picked up from other drummers and salespeople over the years but I never got the advice all at once. This a great site and look forward to reading the various post's
 
Re: THE BASS DRUM TUNING THREAD

Howdya remove impact badges
 
Re: Tuning my Kick Drum

Get new pre-muffled bass drum heads. On the PDP I recommend the Evans EMAD or an Evans EQ3 (or 4 I can't remember which). Until then I would put a regular bead pillow in it although that will probably be too much muffling. The supplied pillow with the stock heads didn't do much when I first got the PDP set either.
 
Re: Tuning my Kick Drum

Well i own a pacific and i had to tune the bass drum tighter (with the stock head) on both sides to get a decent sound. I only used the pillow they gave me and i got a sound that i could live with.
Now my uncle got me a Remo Ambassador bass head. Im not totally satisfied but it will do. I tuned both sides real low and got a sound similar to bonhams bass sound in When the levee breaks. I like the sound but its not something that i will keep permanantly.
Just my 2 cents
 
Re: Tuning my Kick Drum

If you want to stop ring completely with new heads you want an Evans EQ3 with one or even two EQ pads on the batter. For resonant head go with a head like an EQ3 that has a hole in it or for even less resonance a Retro Screen. To keep your EMAD 2 and get the sound you want get one or two EQ pads. For more attack get AF Patches.
 
well i just got the accent bonham set from ludwig and im kind of dis pleased i put remo heads on the toms and i just cant get a good sound out of them, or maybe im just not very good at tuning, do u guys ahve any tips for tuning or some answers to my problems? thanks, also i would like to know how you guys tune your bass drums i was having some problem with that too
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

i got remo emperors on all of them, and i love the bonham sound so im trying to get that sound, i got a good sound out of my supra phonic snare but im having some trouble with the other ones
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

You need to understand that Bonham's sound - almost any drummer's sound - has more to do with how the drums were mic'd, ambience, compression, and eq. You can't expect an acoustic kit to sound that way by itself.

But there's no reason the drums can't sound great, and the Accent kits I've played sound quite nice. But the drum sounds you hear on most recordings are processed to various extents, and those drums rarely sound that way in person.

Bermuda
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

Check out the Jeff Ocheltree video "Trust Your Ears". He was John Bonham's drum tech. and in the DVD he runs thru the whole "how to tune like J.B." . Also remember, he wasn't playing a Ludwig Accent kit either. http://www.answers.com/topic/john-bonham You should be able to get "in the "ballpark" close, but close is as good as it's gonna get. Emperors over Ambassadors is certainly a fine place to start. I drive a Ludwig 26x14 6 ply kick and I run a clear Powerstroke3 batter and a ebony Ambassador with HOLZ port reso.
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

What I do with my kit is I have Coated Evans G2's on the batter side, same head as the Coated Emperors. I have Coated Ambassadors on the bottom, a Coated Emperor on the batter side of the bass drum and a Medium weight smooth white Ludwig script head on the reso side. I personally would stay away from Power stoke heads or any head with a pre muffling system for the bass drum. The 14"x26" bass drum sounds so much better with just felt strips, very Bonham sounding.
The same priciple will apply to all of the drums, tune the resonant side way up and the batter side at about a medium tension. On the bass drum keep the front head solid and put a felt strip vertically on the right or left side your preference. On the batter side I put the felt strip along the bottom about 4" from where the beater strikes the head. Tune the front side way up, it's about 85 on a drum dial. The batter side about 78-80 on a drum dial. Same goes for the toms 85 on reso side 78-80 on the batter side. This gives me a very powerful boomy Bonzo type of sound out of my drums. On the snare same priciple, snare head way up and the batter side about medium or a little higher. Make sure your snares are not choked, you want a very "snarey" sound so you don't lose sensitivity. Good Luck, I hope this works for you. I love the sound that I am getting from my drums. Remember for the bass drum you have to tune it a lot higher then what you would think because of the size of the drum, you are moving a lot of air so you can't tune it loose like a smaller bass drum it just sounds like a wet paper bag if you do.
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

I also want to mention that tuning your bass drum with a more open tuning will take some time to get used to. It is a completely different feel then a bass drum that is really muffled with a port hole. You need to let the beater graze the head to get the full sound of the drum, you can also dig in the beater which results in a powerful boom. The great thing about playing a large drum like this is you can achieve many different tones out of one drum, it's been a lot of fun experimenting with different sounds.
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

hey thanks for all the advice i wish i could try that right now but im currently waiting for some replacement lugs for my bass and my rack tom, but one more thing. 85 for a reso seems awfully high i mean it says on the tuning chart for it to be at around 75 for a tom and around 80 for a bass, it also gets really hard to tighten at that high maybe because i have only 6 lugs on my tom but i donno, but i just dont want to tear one of the heads again that just adds another pain, o yea these felt strips do u jus but it like between the head and the rim? and do u buy specific felt or just whatever, thanks man this is a big help
 
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Re: TUNING LUDWIG

You can try to find felt strips at a music store but I have found that they don't have felt strips that would fit a 26" bass drum unless you special order them. The second option which I did is go to any fabric sewing center and buy heavy duty white felt. They will cut the felt to the sizes that you need. I would buy a yard of felt and have them cut two pieces 26" long and about 4" wide. Take the head off of the bass drum and rest the felt strip on the bearing edge of the drum. Then put the head over the felt strip and finger tighten the tension rods enough so the it holds the felt strip in place. While the tension rods are still loose adjust the felt strip where you want it. Then crank down the tension rods and tune the drum.
Then you cut the excess felt about an inch and a half from the hoop of the drum head. I hope this works out for you.
 
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Re: TUNING LUDWIG

My rack tom is a 10"x14" which has eight lugs. On the Jeff Ochletree video he talks about how Bonzo's bottom head on his rack tom sounded like a "snare drum being tuned" it was so high pitched. I have the same size rack tom as he did on his green sparkle kit. Is your tom a 10"x14" ? If it is smaller it may not sound right because this tuning method is for oversized drums. If it doesn't have the same amount of lugs maybe it can't be tuned that high. I would try to get it as close as possible without damaging the drum. Go to the Bonham page on this web site and they have the Ochletree video clip about Bonham's tuning method.
 
Re: TUNING LUDWIG

You will have trouble tuning the 13' with the 6 lugs make it harder I found.If your kick has the ludwig clear batter and white reso, my batter side is not tuned high but the reso side is tuned up a bit higher no felt strips and no hole in the reso head.The kick sounds amazing I wish I could get my 24' Sonor to sound like this.
 
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