All my vintage "jazz" drum sets are equipped with coated Diplomats and/or original Weathermaster heads that came on the drums and on the bass drums, I use coated Ambassadors.

I leave all drums wide open except for the bass drum resonant head where I use the old-school method of a strip of felt running vertically and off-center.

I also have a set of modern-style Arbiter drums and those all get clear Emperors on the batter sides and clear Ambassadors on the resonant sides. I tune those from medium-high to very low (even a little wrinkle in the floor tom head!). The bass drum has one of those Powerstroke3 heads...which is cool for this particular bass drum, but I generally find self-muffling heads to be very thick and, as a result, quite one-dimensional. It's a cool sound and all...for the fuggada-duggada stuff, but...Party

I don't really have any set pitches in mind when I start. I mainly just look for "sweet spots" where the drums kind of tune themselves...In other words, I find that each drum has a spot or two where the sound suddenly opens up and "sings" . So, when I find one of those sweet spots that sounds good, then that's where I tune it. And those same rules apply for all the drums.

I have never tried a Tension Watch or any of those devices. I tend to think they would lead people to believe what they see and not so much what they hear.

Pitch differential between resonant and batter heads are probably a little looser on the resonant side heads for my low-pitched drums and maybe a little higher on the jazz set-ups. I like to try and get my low-pitched drums (the Arbiters) to "pitch bend" down when possible. I think it sounds cool.

With the jazz sets, I like to get them to sustain as long as possible in those "sweet spots" I mentioned earlier.

My favorite synthetic heads have always been Remos. I have tried other brands, but I always get the most pleasing sound from Remos. I will have to say that I LOVE real white calfskin heads. -nothing like them! But, they are impractical for all but a few applications in the real world and they are extremely expensive!

I get bored with my snare tunings sometimes and, recently, I decided to loosen the batter head on my gigging Acrolite and make the head "softer" and "floppier" feeling. It had an adverse effect on ghost-noting, but it added a lot of flavor to the back beats and press rolls. I'm sure that I'll tire of that way and resume a higher tuning eventually. The nice thing about the Acrolite is that it sounds good ANY way it's tensioned! It's just a great drum.

I guess that's about my 2 cents worth!

I just tune them until they sound good and evenly apart from the other tom. I never got into the whole science of tuning, I just tweak them evenly till I like what I hear. Usually that is just equal tuning of both sides of the heads.

Right now I am using Medium Aquarian vintage heads and they sound wonderful.

No muffling on any drum except a felt strip on the bass drum.

One thing that is overlooked in tuning is that it doesn't sound the same out front as it does to you sitting at the set. You may think it's great but it might sound like crap out front. I suggest that you get what you think is a good tuning and then have one of your band mates play the individual drums and go out front and see what you think from that perspective. Snares are famous for overtones and ringing from the drummers perspective but may sound great out front.

Jack

:)

Great topic!! I'm a tuning junkie... always experimenting and trying to find the best sound for a given drum. I tend to tune a set depending on it's (A) sweet spots and (B) intended use.

My vintage Kent/Leedy set is tuned higher, for a jazz/blues sound, while my Gretsch Catalina Club Mod set is tuned low for rock-n-roll. My 3rd kit (no name import) is somewhere in the middle.

I start with the kick and work my way up. Generally, the batter is lower than the reso and the reso can be quite a bit higher, depending on the type of sound I want. I use a Powerstroke 3 clear on the Kent kit and SuperKick I and II heads on the other two. Reso is usually some kind of ported single ply with built in or no damping. Nothing inside the kick drum except a section of 1/8" thick felt (about 13" X 20") laid on the inside bottom of the shell, but not touching the heads. I do this when recording or in a live situation where the kick will be mic'd - This keeps the sound waves from bouncing around inside the kick and presents a more focused sound to the mic. I go for a round, semi-open sound on the Kent and more of a rock thump (not the dead "thwap" of the 80's and 90's) on the other two.

For the "rock" floor tom sound, I usually tune the batter pretty low (just past the wrinkle point) and the reso a tad higher than that. I'm currently using Evans EC2 Coated batter heads with Remo clears on the Gretsch toms and I'm really digging the sound. For the Kent kit, it's Aquarian Studio X batter heads and Evans reso glass heads on the reso side. I tune the batter to a medium tension and the reso up a 3rd or 4th above the batter. This gives the tom an open round sound with just enough ring to make it "jazzy" sounding, but enough damping from the Studio X head so it doesn't sound silly. I control the pitch of the drum with the bottom heads tuning.

Since most of my kits are 4 piece only, the single rack tom is tuned a 4th above the floor tom (think "Here Comes The Bride"). I don't go for specific pitches, I just try to find the sweet spots. Sometimes this means retuning one of the toms to keep that 4th interval. The no-name kit is set up with Remo coated ambassadors on the batter side and Remo clears on the reso side. I usually dampen a tad with a single Moon Gel per tom for recording, and leave them wide open for live playing.

Lastly, my snare collection is pretty eclectic. I don't tune the snare a 4th above the highest rack tom, I just go for what sounds best. I mix and match snares all the time so I tend to set up each snare for a different sound. Everything from a 4" X 13" steel piccolo to an 8" X 14" 8 ply maple snare. Tuning ranges from fat and low to tight and snappy. I use the usual Remo Ambassador coated and snare side heads on many of my snares, but I've also been experimenting withe others. I put an Evans G series with control ring on a particularly ringy and troublesome no-name wood snare. I was ready to toss it in the woodpile to be honest, but with the Evans "tom" head and a set of Puresound Blasters on it, it's now not only usable, but sounds really good.

Oh, and musicbybj is absolutely correct. What we hear behind the kit isn't always what the rest of the world (including recording engineers) hears. I have the luxory of having my drum students play my kits while I stand back and listen. I can usually identify any "out front" issues and correct them. In fact, the above woodpile snare drum sounds 110% better from the audience side than the throne.

Okay... I think that's enough... for now :)

I use a drum key...

Laughing H

Sorry, I could not help it...

David

I knew that was coming... eventually ;)

I thought that was better then "with extra duct tape!"

What happened to the days when they would use duct tape, electrical tape, towels, pillows etc.....

Once I found 4 towels in a Slingerland 18" bass drum!

David

That doesn't leave much room for any sound to escape :)

Of course, I guess you could just squeeze the mic in between the towels and get something ;)

You guys are so sillyClapping Happy2 Clapping Happy2 Clapping Happy2

I will add one thing about snare overtones and ringing. I never use an internal muffler on the snare but use a trick I learned from an old timer (now I'm the old timer:o ). Use a simple business card and set it by the rim. It reduces unwanted ring without killing the tone. Try it, it works.

Jack

:)