Tuning Toms

[fiacovaz]

Yep...what these guys said!

[slingerland59]

It's very rare that I can sit behind drums and not give it a tweek. I am very tone sensitive having spent much of my life in recording situations and if I hear the least amount of pitch bend, the key comes out. Finding a toms pitch out of sequence in a kit also drives me a little wacky. There are soo many reasons why a kit can get out of tune from one day to the next and I don't care who manufactures the particular drums, non are immune.

Dennis

I'm glad you said this. I was starting to worry that my drums need some bearing work because they require frequent adjustments.

That being said, does it sound normal for certain lugs on the snare (I have a Tama Imperialstar, metal one) to loosen off many turns after several hours of playing time?

[audiotech]

I'm glad you said this. I was starting to worry that my drums need some bearing work because they require frequent adjustments.

That being said, does it sound normal for certain lugs on the snare (I have a Tama Imperialstar, metal one) to loosen off many turns after several hours of playing time?

Tension rods loosening several turns just after several hours of playing doesn't sound normal to me in my experience. What type of music do you play? Do you play with your batter head fairly loose? I play a lot of rim shots and find that after playing a day or two the tension rods at the 7 o' clock and 5 o' clock positions on my snares sometimes might need a little touch-up to get the batter head back in tune with the drum. Are all your tension rods tensioned approximately the same after just tuning your snare? My only thoughts are that maybe the ones that are comming loose by several turns might not have been under the same tension as the other rods on your drum. The tension rods that are the looser ones to begin with, will normally de-tune or loosen the quickest since it will have the least amount of resistance to the rims. I also find that some tension rods will spin more freely than others in different type of lugs. For instance my Tama Starclassic Bubinga tension rods will hand tighten freely into their lugs, but my Yamaha tension rods will need the key every time.

If you don't already have them, there are little rubber or neoprene washers that you can get and install between the tension rod head and the rims of your snare. These will compress and offer a bit more resistance for the tension rods instead of the metal to metal contact that they have now. They are very inexpensive and may solve a lot of your problems. I know Tama manufactures them as well as other companies. Maybe just some small rubber washer from a hardware store might work well.

Hope this helps,
Dennis

[Larrysperf]

Tension rods loosening several turns just after several hours of playing doesn't sound normal to me in my experience. What type of music do you play? Do you play with your batter head fairly loose? I play a lot of rim shots and find that after playing a day or two the tension rods at the 7 o' clock and 5 o' clock positions on my snares sometimes might need a little touch-up to get the batter head back in tune with the drum. Are all your tension rods tensioned approximately the same after just tuning your snare? My only thoughts are that maybe the ones that are comming loose by several turns might not have been under the same tension as the other rods on your drum. The tension rods that are the looser ones to begin with, will normally de-tune or loosen the quickest since it will have the least amount of resistance to the rims. I also find that some tension rods will spin more freely than others in different type of lugs. For instance my Tama Starclassic Bubinga tension rods will hand tighten freely into their lugs, but my Yamaha tension rods will need the key every time.

If you don't already have them, there are little rubber or neoprene washers that you can get and install between the tension rod head and the rims of your snare. These will compress and offer a bit more resistance for the tension rods instead of the metal to metal contact that they have now. They are very inexpensive and may solve a lot of your problems. I know Tama manufactures them as well as other companies. Maybe just some small rubber washer from a hardware store might work well.

Hope this helps,
Dennis

You can get them at Home depot, cheap

[Zeta]

Well start with the largest or smallest, depending one you know the exact sound you want it to have. then tune to fit around it. make sure there is not to9 much of a gap between them too, and make sure they have and equal gap from one to the next for your tom roll fills.

[slingerland59]

Thanks for the help Dennis and Larry. I'll try the washers. You have guessed at my problem exactly. I play almost exclusively rimshots for rock songs -- light, controlled ones just about two inches up from the tip of the stick. That's how I get the snappiest, nicest sound from my snare.

[Tazmania]

WoW! Never had tension rods loosen that much if at all.