Tuning

DsDrummer

Senior Member
Don't know where this should necessarily go so I thought general would be okay. Anyways, how do you tune your drums? For me I crank the snare on the top and give the bottom a a full turn tighter than finger-tightened. The rack tom are either hit or miss and is what I need help with. I do the top head two full turns on every lug after finger tightening it and the bottom the same, and the floor I go a little tighter than finger tightening. The kick I tighten until it doesn't sound dead. I don't think this is the right way to tune drums though, and I'm clueless. What is the proper way to tune and how do you guys do it?

Thanks,
Dan
 
yes Bob Gatzen vids to start.
don't go by 'number of turns' go by pitches, so you must use your ears.
For a start (easiest) get batter and reso pitches the same, then you can vary on that.
Spending an afternoon on the ins and outs to tune your drums is a necessary step, and you learn a lot about drums at the same time.
 
As mentioned, the Bob Gatzen videos are great.

Most important is making sure the drum is in tune with itself, meaning the tension is equal across all lugs. Depending on the condition of the drum, this can be easy or difficult to accomplish. By muting the opposite head and tapping gently near each lug, the objective is to hear the same pitch around the entire head. This ensures you won't get nasty overtones that are undesirable in pretty much every situation.

As for what pitches to tune each head to, or what interval to use between batter and resonant heads, that's largely personal preference. Each drum has "sweet spots"; pitches that excite the shell and make the drum really sing. Depending on the size of the drum and how it is constructed, the sweet spots can vary.

Check out the Gatzen vids.
 
Definitely do what 8Mile is suggesting and tap near the lugs while muting the other head. I also combine that method with a Drum Dial for more precision. In addition, before you put on a new drum head, apply a tiny amount of Vaseline to the tension rods, and use a pipe cleaner to scrub out any rust that may have built up inside of the lug. This will ensure that all of the tension rods screw in smoothly, as rust buildup on the tension rods or in the lugs will make tightening more difficult.
 
Here's a fool proof method to get you started, begining with your floor tom and work your way up to the smaller drms from there.
Begin with all tension rods finger tight, the drum sitting on a firm surface.
Press in the center of the head with your middle finger, notice the wrinkles in the head.
Star with one tension rod and tighten just until the wrinkles by it go away.
Work your way around the drum and tighten each rod until the wrinkles by each rod go away.
Press firmly in the center of the head with the heel of your palm, leaning into it with your weight to seat the head.
Repeat the process above, pressing in the center of the head with your middle finger and tighten each rod till the wrinkles at each point go away.
Turn the drum over and do the exact same thing on the other side.
Do each floor tom and tom the same way. You'll find that your drums sing and the pitch intervals are nearly perfect, and the pitch at each tuning point is very close.
Now you can fine tune by sitting the drum on your throne, tap with your finger at each lug and bring the lower pitches up to match the highest pitch.
After you've done this, you can experiment with raising the pitch of the bottom head a bit, or leave them both the same pitch.
This same method will also work on your bass drum.
The snare, start with each tension rod finger tight. Turn each rod a 1/4 turn and work your way around the drum until you have about the pitch you want.
Now, set it on your throne and even the pitches at each point.
Tension the snares so that when you barly play the drum out at the edge the snares respond, but when you smack it hard in the center they don't continue to rattle.

Get this method down, it's really easy to do, and then you can start experimenting with pitch intervals,etc.
 
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