Old Drums

[tilinmyowngrave]

Does the age of a drum affect its sound?

[mikeh]

In my opionion, yes.

I've had steel snare drums that tended to get "dull" sounding after about 20yrs. I've had various types of wood shells that lost some of thier "cut" after many years. Certainly the bearing edges can lose some shape after many years as can rims.

In some cases an "aged" drum may add "warmth" which may be a good thing. In some cases an aged drum may be more difficult to tune.

[Kasey]

i dont know about drums honestly, but i know aged wood sounds better on guitars, at least mine anyways. so i'd think that it'd be the same for drums. I have a thirty year old nylon string guitar that was a little over $100 when it was bought and it sounds better than the $1000 nylon guitars out today. It's a great guitar but i think a big part of it is the fact that its aged wood. it has a much warmer sound than any other guitar i've heard. I wouldnt trade it for any guitar out today, no matter how expensive.

[Tim Brown]

Originally Posted by mikeh

In my opionion, yes.

I've had steel snare drums that tended to get "dull" sounding after about 20yrs. I've had various types of wood shells that lost some of thier "cut" after many years. Certainly the bearing edges can lose some shape after many years as can rims.

In some cases an "aged" drum may add "warmth" which may be a good thing. In some cases an aged drum may be more difficult to tune.

BINGO!!!


I've always wondered if the "aged" drum sound is actually "age" itself, or if it's from years of pressure caused by drumhead being stretched over the bearing edge, sort of rounding/smoothing them a bit, plus the effects of pressure, such as woukld take place over millions of years turning a coal into diamonds.




Tim

[tilinmyowngrave]

I thought my birch drum set (25-30 years old) sounded a bit warmer than I was used to with other birch drum sets... maybe its because its in tune...