tuning drums...help!

Mark2229

hey,
i got a pearl export on saturday in musicmaker and i can set it up and everything but i cant tune them...i gets really frustrating so i was wondering if there is anybody in dublin that tunes drums for a price?

Doctor J

They'll start to detune as soon as you hit them, or if the temperature or the humidity changes, etc, a one-off tuning is useless.

Your best bet is to find a good tutor and do a few lessons, concentrating on learning how to tune. If you ask Ro in Musicmaker, he's an absolute gent, he should be able to show you the basics considering you spent good money in there.

Fair play to you, you'd be amazed at the amount of drummers with no idea how to tune drums and with no inclination to learn.

Patricide

God dont i know it, Cant say much myself cause i cant tune drums, but its a second instrument to me and noone around that iv asked will teach me :(I do get my kit tuned by drummer freinds though).

But still back to it, the amount of full time drummers i know with class kits and there all tuned TERRIBLY and they cant explain why it sounds like a 100 euro kit is beyond me.

Demeyes

There are some tools that can help. I've heard of people using this tension gauge thing to get drums to a certain good level, with a quick tweak by ear to finish off. There are guidelines for using it somewhere but you can always learn without using these kind of things.
I'm not great at it, but I like to tune to a nice tension and then get all the toms together to sound in tune to 3 Blind Mice.

chin_grin

Drumdial -> http://www.drumdial.com/ (you can pick up other makes probably at Musicmaker).

But yeah, I still getting to grips with tuning. There are a few handy vids on youtube if you wanted to check there. (it's blocked here in work, so apologies on the lack of linkage).

The problem I find is tuning the heads too tight and not getting the pitch correct at each lug. You'll pull your hair out tuning a tom, but it's worth the trial and error. Good luck.

PearlDrummer

Hey dude,

Trial and error with the stock heads isn't the worst thing in the world...

Look up a few videos in you tube and you're flying it.

Use your fingers to tap near the lugs and then compare each lug with it's opposite, trying your hardest to match every lug to the same pitch....

You'll get used to it after a while, i swear to god i nearly pissed myself when I was changing the skins for the first time, but it wasn't as bad as it seemed!!

I was freaked that I'd rip the skin or something when I was tightening the lugs.


Most important thing to do is:
Don't turn the lugs too much at any one time - can damage/warp the skin
Tune each lug and then its opposite, trying your hardest not to tune two lugs that are beside eachother ever....

Hope that helps - youtube is your go to guide here though, they'll learn ya good!

dezdrums

Not sure you'll get anyone to tune 'em for you, afterall they'll go out of tune again after a time. This how to tune drums site might help, also if you search google for drum tuning bible there's loads of great info on there that should get you going.

For me, just reading about tuning drums and doing about 30mins or so a day got me pretty good.

Paolo_M

Personally I'd look up some tuning guides and buy a tension gauge, 'till I got a feel of it myself.