Quick, Easy Tuning Method

[DantheDrummer]

Hey Guys,

I recently saw Martin Ranscombe (Europes leading tuning clinician) at Drum Ex.
He showed everyone there a quick and easy way to tune your drums so they sound good and you dont need to know anything about tuning... at all :D

You dont need to tighten the lugs in any particular order at all. As long as you stick to these instructions it doesnt matter if you tighten the lugs in a random order, going round the drum, or diagonally.

Lets start with the resonant heads. (The ones you dont hit).
Put them on as you normally would, then take each lug up about half a turn.

Moving on to the batters...
Place your two fingers into the middle of the drumhead. Press firmly but do not push too hard. The point of this extra tension is to show any wrinkles in the head.
When you applying this pressure, you should be able to see wrinkles in the head. The key now is small turns. About an 8th of a turn at a time. tighten the lugs you think you need to until the wrinkles dissappear.

Thats it. Youve tuned your drums to a .... decent quality.
obviously its not going to tune them absolutely perfectly. But if you think your drums sounds a bit flat. Try this out. Or get them professionally tuned :L

KEY QUOTE " It might sound good from your throne, but theres a good chance it might not sound as good from the other side of the kit. MAKE SURE you check the sound from that side of the kit. If it doesnt sound very good.. you did it wrong. try again. make sure you got all the wrinkles "

Happy Tuning

[Andy_TAMA]

it works

[DantheDrummer]

i know lol :P
glad to help ya out mate

[shakey64]

I saw this tuning method on YouTube couple weeks ago.....I tried it on my Bass drum. Sounds great.

[Northern Redneck]

Ive been doing that for 30 years.

[Russ]

im still having trouble with it

[mainedrummah]

I tried it. It works pretty decent, esspecially since it only took me like 5 minutes per drum. I didn't fine tune though, so they will sound much better.

[Russ]

i just play with the rods until each side has similar pitch, with exception to the snare of course

[DantheDrummer]

glad to help you guys out and good for you Northern Redneck (Y)

[Larrysperf]

Have always tuned my bass drum this way

[ReverandCarey]

wen you guys tun, do you guys just make the two tom heads a similar pitch? Or do you go around the head making all the lugs sound the same?

[Bish]

Ive been doing that for 30 years.

I think I would have given up if it took me 30 years to tune a drum.

What can we do to help, NR?

[Northern Redneck]

I think I would have given up if it took me 30 years to tune a drum.

What can we do to help, NR?

LOL!

[2slow]

I think I would have given up if it took me 30 years to tune a drum.

What can we do to help, NR?

HAHAHAhahahaha

[Russ]

I think I would have given up if it took me 30 years to tune a drum.

What can we do to help, NR?

win of the day

[eric_B]

Hi Dan, that's very interesting. I'm not very good at tuning and am still finding the best and fastest way to do it. It looks great, but wouldn't the resonant heads be tuned rather low? I mean you just say give the lug have a turn without any check.

[DantheDrummer]

Hey Eric. Good question. Im quite new to tuning methods myself. The problem with tuning resonant heads low is the ring you can get from them. What I meant by tightening them half a turn is tighten them half a turn further than finger tight. This gives you a tension that eliminates ring and sounds good too.
Hope this answers your question. If not, just explain it in greater depth and ill try to help

[eric_B]

Thanks Dan. But I'm still wondering if it would sound good? I have been trying some tools like the Evans Torque Key and the Tama Tension Watch to make up for my bad tuning style. I found out that when I finger tighten the rods and then turn them up halve a turn, the pitch of the head at each lug sounds differently. This also applies when using the mentioned tools. The torque key stops when the rods give a certain resistance and the tension watch is supposed to measure the tension of the head at a specific spot on the head. Still, after using either, when I listen close and tap around the head, I can hear different pitches.

So I would make the gently conclusion that: a. toms and snares aren't perfect (rather obvious); b. theory and practice are two different things; c. trying to get the head to sound the same at every lug is BS as long as the head sounds good.

[DantheDrummer]

oh right i understand now.
It doesnt matter in the slightest if the pitch at each lug is different. Completely ignore the pitch at each lug. Simply do wat ive said. Dont use any tools however cool they are :P
The problem is that your trying to make it harder than it is. Its incredibly simple and very effective. As the other guys have acknowledged
Again. Hope this helps

[eric_B]

Alright, it makes sense to me that the final result (striking the head and listening to the sound) is important. But why would others, like Bob Gatzen, make such a fuzz about tuning each lug exactly right if it didn't matter?

[DantheDrummer]

The thing is. In this particular method the idea is to get a tuning that is quick and simple. For example if your at a gig and your kit sharing. God i hate that :P lol
If the drum was going to be proffesionally tuned absolutely perfectly. Unless you knew how to do it. Im sure it would cost you a lot of money and it would take a long time. This method is a good method for tuning that you yourself can do. Unless you have gone to masterclasses or courses. This is the best most people can do at home.
If your looking for perfect tuning then a local drum shop may be able to help you.

[Russ]

i cant even get my rods to finger tighten all the way, thats whats making things so difficult

[DantheDrummer]

i dont get what you mean ? :S
explain in more depth ?

[cole1paul]

I think I would have given up if it took me 30 years to tune a drum.

What can we do to help, NR?

Hahahaha! I know I know I'm WAY late on this one but I read that and just had to show some love.

[Scooter]

This achieves the LPP (lowest possible pitch) of the drum. Watch the videos on the Evans website.