MusicRadar

View in gallery

When tuning drums, the general approach should be to promote tone, resonance and projection. Unfortunately, tom tuning seems to provide the biggest headache for the vast majority of drummers… until now.

Here's how to tune your toms to perfection, in eight simple steps…

1. Seat the heads

Once again, we're going to begin by seating the heads, a process that is arguably more important on toms than on any other drum type. Take your new head and place on the drum, refit hoop and tension all rods to finger tight. Press firmly in the middle (vary the amount of hand you use depending on the drum size) and look out for those wrinkles.

2. De-wrinkle

Work round the drum a little at a time (remember, we don't need to use the criss-crossing method) until all the wrinkles have been removed. Give the head a good stretch by pressing against it quite firmly a few times. Once you have done this, press in the middle again and check to see if any wrinkles appear (they quite often do on larger toms) and adjust the rods as necessary.

3. Tension in half-turns

To complete the seating process fully, take two drum keys and, working in opposite pairs, tension the head in half-turns, taking it up to a level of tightness that would be way above what most players would use. Quickly check that the head is roughly even all round and then leave for several hours. Overnight is good if possible…

4. Loosen up

Loosen the tight head by detuning the tension rods in opposite pairs in the same way as we tightened them in the first place. Now make them all finger tight again and you are ready.

When tuning, it's a good idea to start with both heads detuned back to slack, regardless of which head you're replacing. Why? Because the chances are that the bottom head will have detuned slightly since we last checked it, and if you are putting a new batter head on, it will be slightly different from the previous one, even if it is the same model.

Next page: how to make it sing

Around the web: