Drum Dial

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Abbott

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I was at a local music supply store recently and a thing called a Drum Dial caught my eye. I asked the guy at the desk and he told me all about how it tunes your drums for you and is precise. Anyone have any comments on this seemingly uknown piece of gear? (Sounds like a recording studio essential to me...)
 
I have a friend who uses one of those. He only uses it on the snare, because he tunes his toms pretty loose, and they're easier to get right. He swears by it for getting his snare tuned right, especially since it's a 10 lug drum. He's fanatical about tuning.
 
I don't know if it's the same thing but I am familiar with something called a Drum Torque that basically is a torque wrench for tuning lugs, it measures that each lug has the same tension on it. It's great for a quick 'ballpark' tuning, but since it basically measures how much force it takes to turn a lug it depends on the lugs all having the same amount of friction from dirt, or corrosion and all being lubricated to the same extent. So to get the best results you have to keep the lugs ultra clean and lubed and even then it's just a starting point.
 
The Drum Dial allows you to get even tension at each lug. There is also an instruction sheet (in the box) which identifies recommended tension for various shell sizes. Naturally this does not take into consideration personal preference.

The Drum Dial is very helpful in a studio - in particular if you change heads often. It is also helpful in live gigs where the event won't allow a sound check or if the house stereo system is blasting so loud you can't hear to tune the drums. Although the personality of a drum can change from gig to gig - it is helpful to have an idea of where the proper tension should be.

We use them alot in the drum shop since we are constantly setting up drum sets and changing heads, etc.

There are less expensive items like a drum tourque key - but they are not as flexible in use as the Drum Dial.
 
I've owned my drum dial for about a year now. It's really a great invention.:) Once you figure out the tension numbers that work well on your kit, you can consistently get the sound you need. For example, I have a 12" tom with a Genera G2 coated on top and a clear on the bottom. That tom "sings" when tuned to "75" on top and bottom (Then I "detune" one bottom lug to "72" to get that nice pitch drop).
Just my .02
Jeff
 
are you sure there's a drop in pitch there? Usually there's a correlation between head thickness/type and pitch.
 
I've used one but there is a problem. The lugs must all spin freely with very similar resistance to turning. So any slightly bent lug, or sticky thread, or slight cross-threading, etc will be read on the device as head tension. Try each lug with no head on. They must screw down freely and smoothly. Replace any questionable lug or screw. Try that on an older drum set. I'll bet you'll find a few. AND, oil the threads.
 
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