I tried to be Lars...

[Turbo6]

I heard that he used to use pinstripes and ebony ambassadors on the resonant side of his toms so I tried it. I have to say in my basement the sound is hideous! I was using the oem junker thin single ply heads on the rez side with the pinstripe batter heads and the tom sound was very nice in multiple stages. So Im definitely not as good at tuning as lars because the sound quality isnt very good on my drums. But I think every tom shell is different and maybe his old tama equipment responded good to that combo. Its possible Im doing something wrong as well. The ebony ambassador heads are much thicker than most would use so should I try cranking them really tight? Ive never been an incredible tuner, it takes me all kinds of time to get them set how I like it. I was curious if anyone else had tried this head combo. Maybe they are better in a live setting?? If anyone else has some suggestions or comments Id appreciate the input. Thanks!

[bongobro]

What kind of kit are you playin', Turbo6? The shells may very well make a difference...but there are also some other factors...

[1DrumBum]

Hey turbo! I have had pins on both the reso and batter sides of my toms for almost 2 years now. It took a looooong time to get the tuning down right, but when I finally did, they sounded great. I play a Pearl 8-piece ELX kit and I use a drum dial to tune. I bought an extra set of heads for all my toms one day and got home and thought "I wonder how this would sound" and tried it. Have'nt changed 'em since.

[Turbo6]

My drums are cheapies, knock offs of mapex from the looks of them. MADE IN CHINA! lol

I do take a good deal of time tuning each head so its in tune with itself, then doing the batters a touch tighter than the batter head so the whole drum becomes in tune with itself. With thin reso heads it seemed to sound better when the reso was ~15% tighter than batter head. With the thicker ambassadrs that trick doesnt seem to be working. Maybe Im tuning them all wrong, or maybe its my crap drums were designed to sound good with crap heads.

[Kryshah]

Made in China doesn't necessarily mean cheap... there are a lot of american drum companies that buy shells that were made in China. I think. Anyway, the key bro, is to keep working on them. When you're trying something new like that, it takes a little time and a lot of trial and error to get it to sound good. Keep trying!

[backtodrum]

Keep in mind that Lars's drums are heavely processed. The tone you hear live is sometimes nothing like they sound naturally. I have had a couple of occasions to play for three or four thousand people at outdoor venues, and when my kit was miced and processed it sounded absolutly huge. It sounds nice naturally anyway, but miced with EQ and compression it was unbelievable what they sounded like live. My point is often we try to make a kit sound naturally what we hear recorded or in concert situations, and all I can say is it is very difficult to do. I always have a great time playing in those situations because, what my kit sounds like in the monitor and I guess out front is so big it is thrilling to play!

[kay-gee]

Those guys mike their kits to the nines. What they deaden acoustically can be EQ'd in electronically.

all the best...

[kay-gee]

Oh another thing...check your bearing edges. On really cheap drums the edges usually suck large, and a big part of the reason a satisfying tone can not be achieved.

all the best...

[Turbo6]

By bearing edge I assume you mean the actual shell surface that the head is resting on?? Mine do suck majorly in that department. The wood is very thin and brittle. Nothing like the thickness of pearl or tama toms are. I have been trying different setups with these ebonys and it seems the tighter the reso head the better. I have my resonant heads much tighter than the batter heads and it sounds much better in a small spaces. Im not sure how it will respond in a more open arena/stage so I'll have to wait to find that out but overall I still think there is a better combo for my drums when it comes to heads. The tighter a reso head is the more it chokes the sound from carrying so in theory its a worse setup but we'll see how it performs in some different places.

[ThunderMaker]

I suspect Lars hasn't had a drum key in his hand in a long time...thats what drun techs are for...not only are his drums mic'd, eq'd and processed...they might be triggered as well...especially in the studio, producers today like to use electronics to simplify things. On his last album, the drums sounded "interesting" compared to what they used to sound like. IMHO.

[kona]

By bearing edge I assume you mean the actual shell surface that the head is resting on?? Mine do suck majorly in that department. The wood is very thin and brittle. Nothing like the thickness of pearl or tama toms are. I have been trying different setups with these ebonys and it seems the tighter the reso head the better. I have my resonant heads much tighter than the batter heads and it sounds much better in a small spaces. Im not sure how it will respond in a more open arena/stage so I'll have to wait to find that out but overall I still think there is a better combo for my drums when it comes to heads. The tighter a reso head is the more it chokes the sound from carrying so in theory its a worse setup but we'll see how it performs in some different places.

You may have seen this video clip (Bonham's drum tuning starts about 2:15 into the video - worth watching for interest on how he got that large full drum sound of his - the large drums helped too).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaFVUlV0rvI

[Stevo42w]

That and lars wouldnt setup/tune his own kit.

[kona]

That and lars wouldnt setup/tune his own kit.

Yes - the guy in the video there most likely tuned or helped to tune those drums.

I don't know much about Lars. I have the DVD set of Metalica and the symphony (Sandman looks like it would fun to play). I think he's a pretty good drummer, not the best, but he's having some fun with it and making a pretty good living I expect.