Tuning or shell problem?

[Wesley]

I have a set of Yamaha recording customs that I'm having problems with. Mainly the 12" tom is nearly impossible to tune.
I put an older 12" pinstripe on it and it sounded just ok, then I tried a new G2. This sounded really dead with annoying overtones. Thinking maybe something happened to the bottom head I replaced it with a new Ambassador. Still sounded bad.
Fast forward to yesterday and a new set of rototoms, which sound way better. Lots of tone on the 10" with a long smooth decay. What I noticed is that the rim/bearing edge is much smaller then the (Roto) drum. It appears that with little tension the head pulls fairly flat and is tunable through a broad range.
On the yamaha drum, the head fits snugly over the the drum and the bearing edge. When I try to tune, I'm thinking that the head needs alot of tension to be pulled flat over the bearing edge.
This means that within a normal tuning range the head is riding up wear the plastic starts to curve around the edge.
I know that this is confusing, does anybody know what I mean?
Are all drums made to the same exact diameter? Could mine or perhaps Yamaha be slightly wider?
I bought a new pinstripe and I'm going to try it out tonight.

 

[mikeh]

If you are indicating that the haed fits "too snug" over the shell and as a result you can't get a good tune - then there is a problem. These days, a 12" drum should be consistant from production run to production run (and from one brand to the next). Some older drums - 40's-60's may have been slightly wider than 12" - (Aqaurian actually makes "Vintage Series Heads for these) but rarely should you have a problem fitting current heads on. In any case, the head should fit loose enough that you can rotate ("spin") it.

It is possibly the hoop on the head you tried was warped. Another thing to look at is the wrap (if your drum does have a wrap). I've seem wrap that came to close to the bearing edge, causing unwanted "thickness", which can be fixed by very carefully cutting back the wrap. But I would not expect this on Yamaha Reording Series.

Hopefully, it is not as serious as a warped shell, or plys pulling away from each other. Let us know how the new head works out.

 

[nezpierce]

Wesley,

Are the heads coated or clear?

A pinstripe is a two ply head (as is the Evans G2) that is really designed to be kind of thuddy. Pinstripes are great for live rock, especially if you are touring and need to stretch your dollars.
An Evans G2 is supposed to have more overtones, they are designed for more all around usage from recording to live music. Maybe you just don't like a ringing drum sound.?

I used to play recording custom live with pinstripes and they always sounded great so I am with you there. But I did notice on my kit that the 10" sang and the 13" did too, but the 12" was always lacking.

Yes your hoop could be out of round, but that would indicate some serious abuse, so here is trick you may have not heard of.

Using the G2, tune the bottom head first (no head on top yet) to roughly the pitch that you want to drum to be.

Put the top head on and slowly bring it up (1/4 turns on the lugs alternating back and forth around the drum ) (mute the bottom head by resting it on towel or something similar)

When you get a good solid tone out of the drum, both heads in a nice agreement of pitch (but not exactly the same pitch) put the drum back on the kit.

Choose the lug closest to you and de-tune it. This will (magically really cuz I didn't believe it until I did it myself) bring the tone of the drum out more.

This will work with the pinstripe as well but that head is bit thicker so you won't get quite as much tone.

If you still can't get the drum to sound good and you haven't damamges the head that badly, take it back to the store and tell them it is a defect and get a new one. Sometimes heads are subpar ...

If you need more detailed tuning info, drop me an e-mail....

nP