Can you fix this tom?

Stickman

Silver Member
I'm stumped.. sometimes kits have one tom that's a clunker, and in my case I have an old Rogers kit that I'm bringing out of retirement, not top of the line, but still the kick and 2 out of 3 toms sound awesome. The small tom (10") has never been great.. it just has no character or resonance or you name it.. it's just a dud. I've taken the rims off and put it on a sheet of glass and the bearing edges are fine. I've tried different heads on it (emporer, ambassador, aquarian 1ply coated and a pin stripe) but I just can't get it to sing.

Thought I'd take one more kick at the can as I need to use it as a practice kit for another band.. any ideas are welcome. Thanks!
 
it may be the mounting system that is hurting its resonance

personally, i would forget about it and just use the 2 out of the 3 toms.
4 piece rocks.
 
I know this sounds like a brutal thing to do to a Rodgers drum set, but try removing the re-rings.




.
 
Any possibility of you posting a picture of how you are mounting it?
 
What year, and what type of shell? I'd guess the mount is overwhelming the shell. The Swiv-o-matic and Memriloc tom mounts are both rather large, for a 10" drum. Switching to a RIMS style mount will probably help.​
 
There is, of course, the possibility that you've guessed correctly about the shell - it may be a dud. Over fifty years of drumming I've run across two or three toms that were just as you described. One of them was a 13" Yamaha Recording Custom tom. It was dead, dead, dead. Stood out from the rest of the kit horribly. No head combination, no tuning would help it.

This could result from several things. An improperly glued shell ply. One ply may resonate at a frequency that cancels out the resonance of an adjoining ply. Just purely guesses. It could be anything. It's a mysterious occurance.

My suggestion would be to replace the shell with one that is similar to the others. Just wrap it in the matching color and transfer the hardware.

GeeDeeEmm
 
Remove all hardware from the shell - lugs, everything. Suspend the shell with one finger inside at the balance point, then gently thump the shell with the soft part of your fist. Does it produce a discernible and overall pleasant note with reasonable sustain, or is it flat & short? Start from that point to rule in or out the shell itself. Everything else then becomes a contributing factor as you build the drum back up.
 
Those are all great suggestions.. I've always suspected the shell, but maybe the hardware too.. haven't tried changing the hoops yet. Lot's to experiment with.. thanks for the ideas!

- and yes.. the last time I used the kit I left the high tom at home, and it sounded awesome as a 4 piece. Unfortunately my new band plays some rock stuff that requires at least 3 toms.

Anyway.. I'll let you know if I get any results with it...
 
I'm stumped.. sometimes kits have one tom that's a clunker, and in my case I have an old Rogers kit that I'm bringing out of retirement, not top of the line, but still the kick and 2 out of 3 toms sound awesome. The small tom (10") has never been great.. it just has no character or resonance or you name it.. it's just a dud. I've taken the rims off and put it on a sheet of glass and the bearing edges are fine. I've tried different heads on it (emporer, ambassador, aquarian 1ply coated and a pin stripe) but I just can't get it to sing.

Thought I'd take one more kick at the can as I need to use it as a practice kit for another band.. any ideas are welcome. Thanks!

Had a Tama Imperialstar that was the same way and about the same size.
It was just a clunker and it ended up being sold very soon after I bought it.
 
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