Tuning Tom Toms

[fruddog]

The problem I have tuning is with the bass drum. There is fine line between your batter head being too loose and tuning too high, thusly tuning the punch out of your kick sound.

Anyone found a sure fire way of staying within the land o kickassidness?

[TBGRocks]

No-one on this thread has mentioned seating the head - where you put the new head on the drum and push it down. Do you guys do that when you are tuning??

[drumfreak]

fruddog,

Good question!  I too have discovered that there is a fine line when tuning that kick drum, just knowing where it is usually makes things difficult   Either you're too low, or your too high, but it takes some practice to find the right zone with the kicks.

Of course, always seat your heads...

[Dave Heim]

The problem I have tuning is with the bass drum. There is fine line between your batter head being too loose and tuning too high, thusly tuning the punch out of your kick sound.

Anyone found a sure fire way of staying within the land o kickassidness?

Kickassedness is a rather subjective thing.

For me - Aquarian Superkick 2 on the batter side tuned just a tad past the wrinkle stage.  Aquarian Regulator with the 4" port on the audience side tuned slightly tighter than the batter head.  No laundry inside the drum.  You get a nice deep thud - lots of oomph.  Me likey.  I have this head combination on 2 of 4 sets.

[fruddog]

A tad past wrinkle. Got it. I'm positive now its Superkick this time for me. Kickassedness is way of life dude! heehee.

I saw a guy seating his bass drum head years ago by literally PUNCHING the center of his bass drum head! I thought that was quite excessive. A drummer friend that was with me told him "hey man you're the poster child for drum abuse". He snobbishly told us that he knew what he was doing. The abuser happened to work for one of our local music stores. Usually some firm pressure is enough to hear that need crackle and pop of the head settling in.

[king]

Usually some firm pressure is enough to hear that need crackle and pop of the head settling in.
I attended an EVANS tuning clinic this year and asked the guy that very same question about applying pressure to get that crackling sound. He said the crackling sound has nothing to do with it. That's just the sound of the excess glue that they use when assembling the head. I used to think it was the sound of the head stretching myself but he said about 90% of all drummers have that misconception as well. Is he right...I'm not sure but he looked like an honest guy

[ThatDrummerKid]

None of my Evans heads have ever crackled or popped. I know the way their heads are glued and the way Remo does theirs is a bit different. Every Remo head I have ever owned cracks once I press on the head to further seat it better. I like both manufacturer's though.

[Dave Heim]

Word is, you don't have to "seat" Aquarian heads.  I don't.  And they sound just peachy.

[kyle7863]

For my toms i use remo pinstripes i like the sound but im thinking about switching to the evans ec2's with the muffling ring on the inside.

right now im using the emad bass drum with the larger foam ring and it sounds awesome.

[king]

I'm with ya on that. I used to use pinstripes because of the durability and versatility of sound. About a year ago I switched to the EC2 Clear and they sound great! I also used the Evans Emad batter head and it's my head of choice. I know a lot of people that have had problems with the plastic frame cracking that holds the interchangeable muffle rings but I've owned about four of these now and I've never had a problem with it. Right now I have an Aquarian superkick 2 because at the time I couldn't wait for them to order the Emad and I think it sounds just as good, but I would rather have the Emad.

[ThatDrummerKid]

I'm still stuck on Evans coated G2's for my top tom batter. They have never let me down, they barely ever wear out, and they sound very full on my kit.