Tuning

[Denny "Smitty" Schmidt]

I played for 20+ years with the bottoms off my toms. I used to play loud and
hard and used black dots or the double heads with the oil in them. Now I
want to play more jazz-blues style. I will be putting the bottom heads back
on looking for a more mellow sound. What is the secret to tuning bottom
heads for minimum ringing and overtones.

Thanks
Smitty

[-MIKE-]

Post by Denny "Smitty" Schmidt
I played for 20+ years with the bottoms off my toms. I used to play loud and
hard and used black dots or the double heads with the oil in them. Now I
want to play more jazz-blues style. I will be putting the bottom heads back
on looking for a more mellow sound. What is the secret to tuning bottom
heads for minimum ringing and overtones.
Thanks
Smitty

copied from another post I made, a while back......
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Gatzen's DVD has a great tip about this. (google it, buy it)
He goes through a technique in which he changes the tone, pitch and
sustain of a tom by changing the tension in the resonant head, alone.

Get the batter(top) head tuned evenly at all lugs, at a low tuning
range. Then tension the bottom head at or near the same pitch. For best
effect and clarity, you should be doing this with the drum off the stand
or at least on an isolation mount, RIMS, Tama Starcast, etc.

Next, slowly and gradually tighten the bottom head and listen to the
changes it makes to the drum sound-- again, tone, pitch and sustain. You
will see how it goes from pitch bend, to boomy, to long sustain, to more
controlled tone with less sustain, to barky, to choked, all by
tightening the bottom head, very slightly (like 16ths on a turn or less
at each step). This is all with the bottom head-- the top head has
stayed untouched.

When you get to a choked sound, back off the tension until you are back
to "barky." Now go to the top head and start to tighten it ever so
slightly. The pitch will go up while the tone and sustain start to
change in the opposite direction as when you were tightening the bottom
head, until you get to even relative tension in the top/bottom heads.
Start the process over with the bottom head.

You need to practice this at all the tuning ranges for your batter head.
The better quality you drum and bearing edges, the more tuning ranges
you will be able to go through.

Also, you will get that choked sound without isolation mounts. It
frustrating, but even the best tuning can be ruined with a direct shell
mount.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I have other tuning info on my website...
http://mikedrums.com/tuning/tuning.html

[Denny "Smitty" Schmidt]

Post by -MIKE-

Post by Denny "Smitty" Schmidt
I played for 20+ years with the bottoms off my toms. I used to play loud
and hard and used black dots or the double heads with the oil in them.
Now I want to play more jazz-blues style. I will be putting the bottom
heads back on looking for a more mellow sound. What is the secret to
tuning bottom heads for minimum ringing and overtones.
Thanks
Smitty

copied from another post I made, a while back......
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Gatzen's DVD has a great tip about this. (google it, buy it)
He goes through a technique in which he changes the tone, pitch and
sustain of a tom by changing the tension in the resonant head, alone.
Get the batter(top) head tuned evenly at all lugs, at a low tuning range.
Then tension the bottom head at or near the same pitch. For best effect
and clarity, you should be doing this with the drum off the stand or at
least on an isolation mount, RIMS, Tama Starcast, etc.
Next, slowly and gradually tighten the bottom head and listen to the
changes it makes to the drum sound-- again, tone, pitch and sustain. You
will see how it goes from pitch bend, to boomy, to long sustain, to more
controlled tone with less sustain, to barky, to choked, all by tightening
the bottom head, very slightly (like 16ths on a turn or less at each
step). This is all with the bottom head-- the top head has stayed
untouched.
When you get to a choked sound, back off the tension until you are back to
"barky." Now go to the top head and start to tighten it ever so slightly.
The pitch will go up while the tone and sustain start to change in the
opposite direction as when you were tightening the bottom head, until you
get to even relative tension in the top/bottom heads. Start the process
over with the bottom head.
You need to practice this at all the tuning ranges for your batter head.
The better quality you drum and bearing edges, the more tuning ranges you
will be able to go through.

Mike... you da man. I spent some time tonight tuning starting with my 16x16
floor tom. I followed your instructions and got very very close to what I
was looking for. I ending up putting a 2 inch felt strip on the bottom head
and then got exactly what I wanted. It cut off the sustain perfectly for me
without sacrificing tone or the stick feed back. I switched heads back and
forth and ended up back with the Evans Hydraulics. Dude I've been playing
off and on for nearly forty years and spent all that time trying to tune the
top with different heads, duct tape, bandaids, towels, mufflers etc and
never got the exact sound I was looking for. Other cats in the band and on
the floor often mentioned that they like the sound of my old Rogers Holiday
kit but I never got it just right for me. I'll be doing my other drums over
the weekend like this. I'm stoked. Now I'm thinking about how to un-mount my
toms to put them on the floor.
Thanks
Smitty
www.adroit-images.com

[Sean Conolly]

Post by Denny "Smitty" Schmidt
Mike... you da man.

Seconded!

Post by Denny "Smitty" Schmidt
I spent some time tonight tuning starting with my 16x16 floor tom. I
followed your instructions and got very very close to what I was looking
for. I ending up putting a 2 inch felt strip on the bottom head and then
got exactly what I wanted. It cut off the sustain perfectly for me without
sacrificing tone or the stick feed back.

A tip I picked up here years ago was to throw a few cotton balls in the
floor tom. They're light enough to bounce off the bottom head on the initial
attack, but then settle back down and dampens the head. Start with one, and
keep adding till you get the sustain you're looking for.

Sean

[Steve Turner]

Post by Denny "Smitty" Schmidt
I played for 20+ years with the bottoms off my toms. I used to play loud and
hard and used black dots or the double heads with the oil in them. Now I
want to play more jazz-blues style. I will be putting the bottom heads back
on looking for a more mellow sound. What is the secret to tuning bottom
heads for minimum ringing and overtones.
Thanks
Smitty

"Minimum ringing and overtones"? Are you sure want the answer? :-)

I would argue that the whole reason for using double-headed drums is to extract the "maximum
amount of tone and sustain", and any tuning method I would suggest would be towards that
goal. Your single-headed drums with black-dot and/or hydraulic heads have been giving you
the exact polar opposite, and if that's what you want but with a more "mellow" sound, you
might want to prepare yourself for the additional advice that's likely to be forthcoming... :-)