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Thread: How do you tune a bass drum??

  1. #1

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    Default How do you tune a bass drum??

    I know this is similar to the 'How do YOU tune' thread, but more specifically I'm really having trouble tuning my bass drum. At the moment it sounds more of a Floor Tom, more of a bom sound rather than the desired boom! If you know what I mean. I want a real good THUD! sound coming from it. I've tried lots of different combonations, tuning the front tight and the back loose the front loose and the back tight both tight both loose both middle and now I'm all out of ideas.

    Sorry by the front I mean the black skin with 'TAMA' printed on it and by the back I mean the one you hit with the bass drum pedal. I don't know the correct terminology so if you could help me with that too that would be great!

  2. #2
    Larrysperf Guest

    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    Front is reso back is kick or beater side. I tun my reso just up from wrinkle and my kick up from wrinkle till I get that nice boom boom sound

  3. #3

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    Andy, from your Avatar, it looks like you have a Ported reso head...which will give you a lot of the boom. You didn't say much about the type of batter and reso head you have so I will assue that they are stock heads that came with the drums. To get the "Thud" that you are wanting, you might have to look for a thicker ply or double ply batter. Also the size and depth of your bass drum plays a role in this. I play a 16 x 20 bass drum and it does not have the power like an 18 x 20 will have. The thin batter head I used to use had way to much resonance and not enough of the lower end thud sound. I was told by the drum pro where I shop that a head like the Aquarian Force 1 clear batter head would help. It's thicker and has an internal muffleling ring. I can hit it with more pedal force and get a nice "Thud" from it. There are many bass batter heads out there so you might have a lot of investigating to do. If it's still to "Boomy" then you might want to go with a closed reso rather than the ported that you have now...that will cut down the sound.
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  4. #4

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    put a small pillow inside the kick.

  5. #5

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    try, like the other guy said, a thicker head. the EMAD head by evans is great! also try a very small plyable pillow. tighter beater, slightly looser reso works for me.

  6. #6

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    Quote Originally Posted by fiacovaz View Post
    Andy, from your Avatar, it looks like you have a Ported reso head...which will give you a lot of the boom. You didn't say much about the type of batter and reso head you have so I will assue that they are stock heads that came with the drums. To get the "Thud" that you are wanting, you might have to look for a thicker ply or double ply batter. Also the size and depth of your bass drum plays a role in this. I play a 16 x 20 bass drum and it does not have the power like an 18 x 20 will have. The thin batter head I used to use had way to much resonance and not enough of the lower end thud sound. I was told by the drum pro where I shop that a head like the Aquarian Force 1 clear batter head would help. It's thicker and has an internal muffleling ring. I can hit it with more pedal force and get a nice "Thud" from it. There are many bass batter heads out there so you might have a lot of investigating to do. If it's still to "Boomy" then you might want to go with a closed reso rather than the ported that you have now...that will cut down the sound.
    Hey Andy, listen to Frank, he knows what he's talking about!

    If you have an 18" kick, my thoughts are you would definitely want an unported reso head, and like Frank said you need to try a couple of different batters to find the right one.
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  7. #7

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    I played a few kits with small bass drums, usually an 18" x 14". The most recent kit I played with this size drum was a Gretsch New Classic kit, beautiful set of drums. For the size of this drum, it had a sound and resonance of kits with larger sized basses. For years I've been playing a Pearl kit with a 20" x 14" bass drum. A few months ago I gave it a complete head change including the bass. I tried a few heads and different tuning until I was satified with the sound that I achieved. I ended up using an Evans EQ1 black resonance head with an Evans EQ4 batter head. This gave me a nice attack and powerful punchy boom. I had to tension the reso head a bit more than I usually like to do to get rid of a slight flabby sound I was getting from this front head. Doing this also gave me a bit more resonane from this small kick drum. BTW, I do not have a port hole in this head.

    Another thing that is sometimes overlooked is the type of beater. I'm using a round felt beater right now, but sometimes if I want a softer more mellow type of bass drum sound, I go to the powder puff style. It looks like something my girlfriend would put make-up on with , but I can't remember who makes this particular piece. Anyway, this type of beater will get rid of a lot of the attack sound and give you a nice deep thump or boom sound depending on how tight you have your batter head stretched.

    I just gave this drum a little tweeking yesterday since I was moving things around a bit. I do tune my bass drum much like any other drum, slightly tighter than wrinkle. I push my index finger into the center of the head and look for wrinkles at each tension rod, if I find one, that rod gets tightened a bit more. I might have to tighten the head just a little more to get the resonance that coincides with that "boom" sound. I have a felt mallet that I tap at each tension rod to achieve the same tone at each rod. This gets my bass drums in tune with themselves. It's a bit more difficult doing this with bass drums because of hearing the much lower fundamental tone and the differences in this tone from lug to lug, but it's well worth the effort.

    This works for me, I hope I've helped.

    Dennis

  8. #8

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    lesson 2 in drumbum.com's tunning lessions http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid...um-Viagra.aspx

    this is a good read

  9. #9

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    Default Re: How do you tune a bass drum??

    I used a piece of cloth strip against the kick head, tight agaisnt the head and held by the hoop. Stopped a lot of resonance, and really flattened it out to a sort of deep splat sound. Did the same with all my toms, but I wanted a quick decay tone. It took some tugging and fussing to get it "right" for me, but it sure was a cheap fix.

    A small pillow against the kick head will do the same thing, and is certainly more adjustable for different sounds, per se.

    Now, I cut out my resonant head, using a high-hat cymbal diameter as my reference, so I could easily stuff a pillow in and move it around. Even without the pillow, got a good thud sound, but some of that was that the opening I cut was 14" in a 20" head.

    Beater heads are a good point!! I also used a hard felt head on the Ludwig Speedking kick I used, but I cut a part of it off, to make a flat surface {not round} that struck the head. That seemed to help dampen resonance, doe to the larger head surface contacting the head. {I learned that from Louie Bellson, I was fortunate to meet him once}. Although never an issue for a great like Bellson, I did find that my rebound suffered if I had to really play up on the bass drum, :(
    Last edited by Tam; 01-02-2009 at 08:41 PM.
    Currently electronics, with some "real" cymbals and a few accesories.

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