cdrums21
Gold Member
For those of us who are playing 16" and 18" floor toms......I don't see much, if any, information about this on line anywhere, so I thought I'd post some thoughts/observations about tuning these two floor toms together. As everyone knows, drum tuning is subjective and not everyone likes the same types of sounds and tunings coming from their drums. I recently went back to playing 16" and 18" floor toms. After some 30 years since playing those sizes, I now have a keener knowledge about tuning and drum sounds in general. In most situations today, the 16" floor tom is probably the biggest tom on a drummer's kit. What I am noticing in watching tuning videos or seeing Tunebot settings on drums being tuned for comparison videos, is that the 16" floor tom is being tuned very low....like almost no tension on the lug screws at all, maybe 1/2 turn at best. If you have an 18" floor tom as well, in order to get a good pitch difference, you'd have to take that 18" down really low to sub-sonic levels, but then it sounds thin and papery at this point. I've heard comments that an 18" floor tom is hard to tune or it doesn't sound right with the 16" floor tom. I don't think it's hard to tune an 18" floor tom, but I do think it's kinda hard to get the two to sound good together. What I have noticed, at least for me, is that you pretty much have to tune the 16" floor tom a tad higher than maybe you would if it was the only floor tom on the kit. The 18" drum batter head has to be tuned up enough for it to get out of that papery sounding, sloppy area and give it some tone and presence. Unfortunately, sometimes that is too close to where the 16" drum likes to live. So the point I am trying to make in this post is, if you are struggling to get a good sound and interval between your 16" and 18" floor toms, you may want to try tuning the 16" floor tom up just a bit. It has helped me a great deal in dialing in those big tubs to sound big and beefy. As always, this is just one man's opinion. Hope this helps someone looking for some info on the subject.