tuning tom drums...

[Blue Strat]

My 13" tom always seems to have a dead sound to it. My 12" rack tom and 16" floor tom sound great! The 12" and 16" have a little sustain to the sound, but the 13" just sounds flat, kinda like a bass drum with too much damping.

 

I've got Aquarian heads on all three toms, and the top heads are all tuned the way I want them, I *think* they're all 1/5th apart. I've played with the bottom head on the 13" tom, but it's either too tight or too loose and it still sounds dead.

 

Any ideas as to what might be wrong?

[offramp]

Take a close look at your bearing edges. There may be some dents or warps.

 

I'd offer some tuning tips, but I took a stream of SuperGlue in my right eye today, so typing is labrious with an eyepatch and meds. Innabit.

[Blue Strat]

I'll have to check that out. Any idea as to which head would be affected? Instinct says that the top rim would be the problem.

 

I also was watching an old Phil Collins video I have, and I noticed that he doesn't have any bottom heads on the drum set he was using. Kinda makes me wish I'd kept the used heads I took off of the drums when I first bought the drums. I could have cut the center out and used them for bottom heads. What does removing the bottom head do to the tone of the drum??

[offramp]

Makes it sound really dumb and dated. Don't do it.

 

The potential damage to bearing edges could really be on either side; if you set the drum down on something while it had the bottom head off, it could've happened there. Same thing with the top head. There's a lot of little factors that come into play...too many to chase, sometimes, so it's best just to move forward. If there's a dent or aberration, try to find the most respected drum shop within driving distance, and have them 'true' up the edges.

I don't know what kind of drums you have. Some manufacturers make very fine-edged bearing edges, others are a little more rounded. A finer-edged bearing edge is, when the head is tuned properly, going to have more of a tympani-like tone to it...long, clear, resonant. A rounded bearing edge will have more of a Ringo-like sound (best I can come up with on my lunch hour ). My drums, for example, are a set of 1970 red sparkle Ludwigs. The bearing edges are a little more rounded than most, and part of this is due to the inclusion of the red sparkle covering, which in those days was actually integrated as a layer, meaning that if you look closely, you can see the beginning of the sparkle layer sort of 'sink in' to the vertical seam on the shell. This doesn't do much for sonic accuracy where the bearing edge is concerned, but back then, people were too stoned to notice that kind of stuff. FWIW, My 13" as similar problems to yours; I have to work with it a bit longer than the others.

If your drums are natural finish, try this:

Take EVERYTHING off the drum--heads, hardware, every last bolt/nut--and suspend the drum by your index finger, placed in the middle of the shell, on the inside. Tap the shell with your other hand or a soft mallet (no sticks!!), and try to discern as definite of a pitch as you can. If you can, then this is the natural resonant frequency of the shell, and you should do your best to try and tune the drumheads to that pitch.

Do that by (of course) reinstalling all the hardware, then putting on just the bottom head. Turn each lug the same amount, in a criss-cross/star pattern, until that shell's pitch is reached. Next, put on the top head, and bring it up to the same pitch.

At this point, the drum should resonate really long and have a slow decay.

Next, drop the bottom heads' pitch by just a hair on each lug; now, when struck, the drum should have a slight downward pitch change after the inital strike.

If you apply this to the other two drums, I suspect you'll be happier with the overall sound of the kit; letting each drum speak at it's natural frequency is, in my experience, better than force-feeding a set of pitches at predetermined intervals to them. You might not even notice that the drums aren't tuned to the particular song, because they'll be working at near-100% effeciency...which in turn makes you more jazzed about playing them, which in turn makes you play better, which in turn makes for better tracking.

 

Hope this helps.

[Blue Strat]

My drums are Ludwig Rocker Elites, don't know what year. They are natural finish, and I'll have to try that tuning technique!

 

Thanks,