Tighter resonant head ?

**animal** · 03-09-2010, 05:53 AM

I have asked this question under a different heading and wish to try my luck here. I have found with my bass drum that tightening up the resonant head brought me the magic i was looking for in tone. DO you guys feel as if the rack and floor toms work in the same principle. I have just found that the resonant head created more compression and in short increased the body, volume, and over all sound of the drum from the players side. Your thoughts?

**john gerrard** · 03-09-2010, 06:02 AM

Animal, If you feel that a tighter reso head gives you the sound you are looking for then that is the way for you to go. Some like a looser reso head for what they are looking for. But I think that a majority of drummers try to get the batter and the reso the same pitch so that they resonate together.

As long as you find a tuning method that gives you what you are looking for then that is how you want to tune.

One thing though, don't be afraid to experiment with different tunings.

Good luck. John

**animal** · 03-09-2010, 06:10 AM

John, I appreciate your response. I completely understand that what ever sounds good is good but, I am leaning on fundamentals verses experiment. What I mean is this, I can experiment and miss out on what is proven to work. The sound I am after is a nice warm big full sound on my rack and floor toms. I dont like a high pitched sounding 10 and 12 inch tom. I like a warmer more resonant sound slightly lower in pitch. Do you have any fundamental instructions for such tuning. I wonder if putting a thicker resonant head on would allow the audience a bigger bodied sound because right now from the audience side I am getting a horrible thin over tone sound. YUCK.. and this is with an even tuning between the batter and resonant heads.

**kay-gee** · 03-09-2010, 06:21 AM

You have to remember also, that when you are playing along side electrified instruments, those high pitch overtones are lost to the crowd. When I tune drums I try to keep in mind what they will sound like in a band situation. For instance a bass drum dosent need to be as low as a bass guitar. Imagine a bass guitar note as a vowel. Your bass drum needs to put a constanant at the front of that vowel. Like da, ta, ba, It's all about creating defintion in sound.

all the best...