Changing heads

[Xen-]

I recently bought an amazing DW in White Wash Ash (same as Marco's). That monster sounds so big it's not possible. The original DW heads were all pre-tuned really loose. I only had to work a little on the snare and bass drum.

Yesterday, I bought Remo Ambassador coated heads. UGHH!!! I started working on it this morning and I'm far from done. I think I got the snare right, but it took me 2 hours. Also, the coated heads don't seem to like being tuned loose on the toms. Do you have any tips on how to tune them right?

I didn't really care what sound was coming out of my drums when I had a Pearl Export. :rolleyes: But as I'm starting doing gigs with my band, I'm looking forward to get those new drums to sound like how they're meant to. :p

[Brobjer]

I use coated emperors on my toms. I have mine tuned high, but I tune off the overtones to get a good tonedive.
Don't tune your heads high and work yourself DOWN to a good tone. Instead tune them low and work yourself UP.

A lot of people say that you have to have the head tuned exactly the same all around the shell. That, I believe, isn't true at all. This is much more important with the snare. You don't want several overtones on your snare, and the only way to get one nice tone is to tune it the same all the way around. The topheads on the toms are too loose to even have a good tone.
This is where the bottomheads enter the picture.
These are the most important to be perfectly tuned. They should be tuned like the snare, but lower in pitch. Tune your tom in the tone you would like as a result, and you work with the tonedive and deph of the tomsound with your topheads.
-> Bottomheads higher tuned than topheads.

The bottomheads are really important, and many forget that. They should be fresh and tuned before each gig/recording.

As for the snare, I tune the bottomhead lower than the top. As you see, it's the other way around. Although, you should have a smaller tone interval between the snare heads than between the tom heads.

I tune both my bassdrum heads loose, and my batterhead is as loose as it can, without being wrinkled. The front head a little tighter.

Good luck, and remember that it takes a couple of days for a new head setup to start sound good! =)

- Brobjer - www.andreasbrobjeronline.cjb.net

[alencore]

I hate those coated ambassador on tom-toms. so hard to get good lows on 13, 14 n 16 inch size toms. I prefer just the double headed pin-stripes of remo tuned at low boomy type of sound.

[MaltBuddow3]

Try the Evans G2 next time, that's the best head I've found. I tune the way Weckl tunes: loosen all the lugs and finger tighten them. Place your hand in the middle of the head so you can get all the wrinkles out. Turn each lug once, and repeat on the other head. If that's too low just do the same thing again, with maybe a 1/2 turn. This works on all the drums. The focus needs to be on the overtones. If you match up the harmonics the drums will resonate really well. Bearing edges are also a factor. Most small custom companies use a double 45 degree bearing edge, while other companies use a more round one. The double 45 comes together at a point, which means the head is barely touching the drum, which equals massive beautiful sound. The curved edges touch a lot of the head, which can soke up a lot of the sound quality, so you may also want to start saving up to send them off to a company to redo the edges.

[alencore]

tuning the drums can be so tedious and in the end it just the way you hit them that really matters.