I was just wondering how people on here and how the famous big band radio king endorsers back in the day tuned there radio king snare drums, tight or loose? Etc. ive watched some YouTube demos and notice that a lot of the deeper shelled ones can be cranked up a bit but still retain a nice deep woody tone. can a standard 5" or 5-12" ( I've forgot what it is now) be tuned quite high but stiil have some good body and tone too the sound. I realise this is totaly my call- mine is the 5". I've had mine set on what I think is a medium high tuning, I suppose I haven't messed around much with different tunings but wonder if it can be a bit more 'defined'. Having said all this the tension rods don't seem to want to go much further at all on my last tuning session. Maybe they don't want to go much tighter. Mines a 40s cloud badge, has ambassador batter, and am waiting for Aquarian American vintage heads on order to come, have heads got anything to do with it? Actually maybe mines just set at a medium ish tuning. Anyone....?
How do you tune your RK snares? Last viewed: 2 hours ago
I'm using it for big band stuff. How did Krupa and all the others back then tune?
I'd love to learn the same thing. Calfskin of course I'm sure helped that sound. I always loved this tune and the sound he gets from the snare. I have a late 50's 5.5 RK about a medium tune and it sings really nice. A nice happy medium tuning for me. It can go low and fat and high-tight and crisp. Does it all. It's still my favorite.
Enjoy Mr Krupa!
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaamPjJ_Spc"]No Name Jive - Gene Krupa - YouTube[/ame]
Not a guru just havin fun with some old dusty drums.
Just starting to muddle around on this issue, myself. No doubt calfskin on top. From other posts it seems the really thin calf for snare side is hard to get. Ludwig snare heads have been recommended. On my just arrived RK Student 5" the snare head was a Remo that was cranked so tight couldn't get snare cords threaded correctly.
Pile of used heads here so did some swapping. Ludwig fits the best. Found that to be the case on my Large Badge 7" deep Slingerland snare as well.
Getting ready to order and hope the new Ludwig snare sides are still the same.
Let us know what works for you.
Nice GK clip.
Thanks!
Creighton
I run Remo coated emperor on top and either remo ambassador or emperor on bottom. with steel puresond custom snare wires, on all of my Radio kings, I tension the top head at 82 and the bottom head at 85 using a tama tension watch. I am a hard hitter calfskin wouldn't last very long for my style of playing or the tension I use..
Yes thanks to FFR428 for a great clip of gene Krupa he had such control and great technique. What I realy want is calf but from what I hear it just wouldn't be practical because of tuning/ moisture problems. I know vintage more 2000 you don't like them but I'll be trying the am vintage medium batter, but won't have it untill early may! Hey I'm not at all unhappy with the sound I love it but am just always curious to experiment. Your right puresound customs work best on these drums I have em on my 60s RK, and have used them on this but now the extended ones - these have realy helped the sensitivity and sound.
At some point Id like to try the remo skyntone for batter, interestingly for a couple of weeks I've had an Evans strata batter on my 60s RK, it's a 10 mil head described as a concert head. It sound to me absolutely amazing, it's brought out all the woody tone of the drum is dryer and very sensitive, in a nutshell it's taken any harshness out of the sound. Beautifully warm. Iam just a little bit worried though that the nature of these heads could possibly sound a bit dead from several feet away, it sounds great from where I'm sitting......although like someone said it hasnt got a realy deep fundamental tone. It sounds plenty resonant to me though. When more people were in the room it seemed a bit more subdued. So it's the quest for calf but without actual calf and it's problems. Can anyone tell me if real calfskin heads can behave in a similar manner I.e. sounding good from where the drummer sits but 'being less resonant' out front? That's about everything I want to say on this matter!!
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