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My floor tom wont stay in tune

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Well, my floor tom is a 1958 Ludwig, and I have a coated pinstripe on the top and an ambassador on the bottom. I have one song where I play it really hard and long, think powow drumming, but with both hands and a lot of rimshots and flams and stuff. After a while, the drum wrinkles in one side, but I have noticed it being the same side each time. I was wondering why this is, is the the head, the shell, or the hoop? Or just the heavy playing?

The bearing edges on the drum are really fat, not really a sharp cut at all. Could this be the issue?

baby crawl2 Thanks

Posted on 14 years ago
#1
Posts: 3972 Threads: 180
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You can always sink a buck or two into those little tension stops to see if that might be the issue. They are round on one side, and flat on the opposite. That flat side keeps the tension rod from moving. You tension it to where you want it and then force the nylon tension stop onto the top of the rod. It forms around the top of the rod and keeps it from turning. It really works. Check it out and see if that helps.

Posted on 14 years ago
#2
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I'll check them out, thanks.

Posted on 14 years ago
#3
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The head isn't seated properly and uneven tension.

Seat the head by pressing in the center of the head just before you tune. Tension rods are loose but not sloppy, just enough to hold head in place while you press. You'll hear cracking and stretching of the mylar and glue.

Finger tighten rods until snug then begin tuning.

Use this chart to tighten your rods, full turns each go around until you have the sound you want.

If it continues to go out of tune, check your rods for stripping/misthreading and swivel nut as well.

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Posted on 14 years ago
#4
Posts: 1597 Threads: 96
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You have a tension rod that is loosing up ..

Posted on 14 years ago
#5
Posts: 3972 Threads: 180
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That's what I thought. Tension Stops are the answer here.

Posted on 14 years ago
#6
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YOU SAID RIMSHOTS,I have had that problem with drums that have thinner hoops,usually it will be one -t-rod that is the culprit,the tension stops may help,although one time I had that happen with a 12 tom that i would ride the rim on for a rockabilly tune,later I checked the bearing edge and found a fairly long dip in it,and noticed that whenever the tom went out of tune a little bit just from regular playing it was at the area where the dip was.Might check the edge as long as you are troubleshooting it.

Posted on 14 years ago
#7
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