yammyfan
Senior Member
I posted this reply to someone in another thread but didn't want to hijack the conversation so I yanked it and gave it a thread of its own. I feel like I put too much thought into it to let it die completely. I have zero doubt that some of you wish that I would. 
I am genuinely open to understanding. I don't look down on anybody who feels differently than me - not by a long shot. I acknowledge that it might come across as judgy in places (which might partially answer my own question) but I'll leave it as-is.
This is what I wrote:
"I try to be judicious about recommending the device and generally only do so when someone admits that they find tuning difficult. I've suggested that every drummer should own one - like a tuning key, but encountered substantial resistance to it. I think I at least partly understand why now."
Here's the judgy bit. The discriminating part of me says to pull it but I think there's some truth to it. I could probably rework it but I'm not that wise:
"It's certainly not the case for everyone but I suspect that there's a fair bit of ego protection going on. Maybe a bit of laziness and resistance to change too. All very human and understandable. I also imagine that there's a minority of people out there who won't buy one because they didn't discover it for themselves. Because it was somebody else's suggestion and fervent recommendation, they just won't use it."
Less controversially, I hope:
"I think it's noteworthy that we have no trouble recommending snare drums, cymbals and shell packs that others might like and those things can cost hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars but recommend a $99 device that is 100% guaranteed to improve the sound of any drum kit and that's where some folks draw the line. The barrier to entry here is not financial for the vast majority of drummers."
"Now, I'm making a huge assumption and that is that we agree that all other things being equal, a well-tuned drum kit sounds better than a poorly tuned one. By well tuned I mean lacking unpleasant and discordant overtones. I'm not talking about anything subjective here, I'm strictly talking about the things that we can all agree upon - the audible anomalies that would prompt a person to look for damaged bearing edges, cracked or out of round shells, and warped rims. The symptoms of those things can be mimicked by subpar tuning and that is what the Tune-Bot excels at ferreting out and correcting."
"We also would have to agree that we can unintentionally create discordant and unpleasant tones by failing to clear drum heads properly or by using odd intervals between batter and resonant heads. If that's a supposition that's hard to accept then my argument will fall on - pardon the pun - deaf ears."
"So, yeah. There's an inexpensive device available that doesn't demand or require you to change anything about your tuning preferences or the methods you use to tune your drums. All it does is take whatever you've done and clean it up. Trust, but verify, if you will. And if you are unsure about what you're doing, there are guides and aides available that when used in conjunction with the Tune-Bot, will deliver professional results every time. It's cheaper than a used cymbal or a new set of heads and not much bigger than a hi-hat clutch. It's smaller and lighter than a deck of cards and won't take up much room in your stick bag."
So, there you have it. A bit clumsy perhaps but it conveys my thoughts reasonably accurately. There's not much in it for me - I don't own stock in the company and I'm hardly the first person to jump on the bandwagon so I get no credit for the idea either. I guess I'm just really interested in how a good idea (like seatbelts) encounters resistance in the first place.
Thanks for indulging me.
I am genuinely open to understanding. I don't look down on anybody who feels differently than me - not by a long shot. I acknowledge that it might come across as judgy in places (which might partially answer my own question) but I'll leave it as-is.
This is what I wrote:
"I try to be judicious about recommending the device and generally only do so when someone admits that they find tuning difficult. I've suggested that every drummer should own one - like a tuning key, but encountered substantial resistance to it. I think I at least partly understand why now."
Here's the judgy bit. The discriminating part of me says to pull it but I think there's some truth to it. I could probably rework it but I'm not that wise:
"It's certainly not the case for everyone but I suspect that there's a fair bit of ego protection going on. Maybe a bit of laziness and resistance to change too. All very human and understandable. I also imagine that there's a minority of people out there who won't buy one because they didn't discover it for themselves. Because it was somebody else's suggestion and fervent recommendation, they just won't use it."
Less controversially, I hope:
"I think it's noteworthy that we have no trouble recommending snare drums, cymbals and shell packs that others might like and those things can cost hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars but recommend a $99 device that is 100% guaranteed to improve the sound of any drum kit and that's where some folks draw the line. The barrier to entry here is not financial for the vast majority of drummers."
"Now, I'm making a huge assumption and that is that we agree that all other things being equal, a well-tuned drum kit sounds better than a poorly tuned one. By well tuned I mean lacking unpleasant and discordant overtones. I'm not talking about anything subjective here, I'm strictly talking about the things that we can all agree upon - the audible anomalies that would prompt a person to look for damaged bearing edges, cracked or out of round shells, and warped rims. The symptoms of those things can be mimicked by subpar tuning and that is what the Tune-Bot excels at ferreting out and correcting."
"We also would have to agree that we can unintentionally create discordant and unpleasant tones by failing to clear drum heads properly or by using odd intervals between batter and resonant heads. If that's a supposition that's hard to accept then my argument will fall on - pardon the pun - deaf ears."
"So, yeah. There's an inexpensive device available that doesn't demand or require you to change anything about your tuning preferences or the methods you use to tune your drums. All it does is take whatever you've done and clean it up. Trust, but verify, if you will. And if you are unsure about what you're doing, there are guides and aides available that when used in conjunction with the Tune-Bot, will deliver professional results every time. It's cheaper than a used cymbal or a new set of heads and not much bigger than a hi-hat clutch. It's smaller and lighter than a deck of cards and won't take up much room in your stick bag."
So, there you have it. A bit clumsy perhaps but it conveys my thoughts reasonably accurately. There's not much in it for me - I don't own stock in the company and I'm hardly the first person to jump on the bandwagon so I get no credit for the idea either. I guess I'm just really interested in how a good idea (like seatbelts) encounters resistance in the first place.
Thanks for indulging me.
