Oh, I wasn't suggesting it as a good idea.....LoLoLoLo

Yeah. "Don't try this at home".

@Teverson. Have you tryed fine-tuning? In my experience some overtones can be reduced drasticly by getting the tension at each lug exactly the same. You could do that by ear or using a tension watch or something similar. It happened to me that there were overtones due to the reso head that was not quite in tune to itself.

Hi Bart.

I guess I should have been clear but the head must be in tune with itself before you try to tune it to a specific pitch or a complimentary one for the opposite head.

But your comment reminded me of another trick- if the head starts out in tune with itself, sometimes de-tuning a single lug will shut down odd harmonics or control odd ring.

Thanks for jogging my memory!

There are tons of factors at play here.

I would first check the shell for roundness. Then the bearing edges for evenness and cut. Then move on to the heads.

A head being in tune with itself? Yeah, I've heard that, it's called marketing!

We tension these heads up, my experience has shown me that doesn't matter. Since I'm not a fan of Evans heads, I would try a set of Remo's, after of course, checking the shell itself.

Single ply coated top, same on bottom to get rid of the after tone you are talking about. Also, go up one, perhaps more octaves. It sounds as though you are tuning very loose, and for some situations that's fine, but you drums will be twangy.

Any drum, if you are having tuning issues, should be tested with different heads, tunings, etc. The sweet spot is there, you have to find it!:2Cents:

Maybe you misunderstand. I agree the terminology is probably wrong...

But what "in tune with itself" means, is that you play lightly around the head about an inch from the bearing edge at each lug. Each strike should be in tune with the other locations on that head. upon reflection it does seem to be an oxymoronic definition.

So the heads should have the same pitch (which us independent of tension of course) at each lug location. You should also "seat" the head (probably another bad definition) by pressing the center after each tension adjustment. Not doing that can allow the head to suddenly shift and alter tension/pitch once you think you're done.

Thank you gentlemen for your suggestions-

Tony Williams played CS black dots top and bottom for a long time, you wouldn't think that might sound very good but go back and listen to some youtube videos, of course he was playing on a Gretsch kit though :D

I have 1 jazz kit with CS black dots on the reso side and it sounds great.

I'm about ready to invest in some CS black dots to attempt that Tony Williams sound on a vintage Tama kit...

Tony did run dots on his famous yellow kit! Saw it a hundred times but it didn't sink in.