Members qwertyMan Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Hi guys! As some of you know, I recently got a Gretsch Renown Maple and am loving it! Well long story short, I have all the drums except the bass drum down in my basement, because our basement sometimes floods, so we're going to get a drum riser and then put down the bass drum. Currently I am using my old kit's bass drum and snare (Gretsch snare not here yet). Anyways, my main problem is that my 12"x9" tom sounds kinda dead and overtone-y, and I'm not sure why. I am running the stock Evans G2s on the tops and some no-name resos that came with it. On the drum dial the batter is at 73, and the reso is at 74. Is that too loose? Just to make sure we all have the correct measurements, when the dial isn't sitting on anything, the pointer is pointing at zero, right? Will tuning higher help? Will getting good resonant heads work? I have a bunch of Remo Coated Emperors to replace the Evans G2s when they wear out. Coated heads dampen the overtones right? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members coyote-1 Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Dead AND overtone-y?? That is certainly an odd combination. My first suggestion: Put away the DrumDial for awhile and listen as you tune. Now.... Take off both heads. Put them back on, making sure both are seated correctly. Tighten them both to a point well past your ordinary preference, then loosen both and tune as you normally would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members qwertyMan Posted June 13, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Cool, I guess I'll try that, does anyone else have any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drmrdude Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Well you sort of contradicted yourself there. Usually when someone says the drum is dead, they mean it doesn't have any resonance. And when someone says it is ringy, it usually means it resonates too much. I think you might be looking for a different adjective, but I'll say this. Toms are made to sing and resonate especially high-end ones like Renown Maples. It's weird that people pay so much money for nice drums, but then end up muffling them. Yes, too much ring is bad, but for drums like the toms I think you really need those to just ring. Without the ring it makes it harder to hear over the rest of the kit and band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members qwertyMan Posted June 13, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Well, I never said they ring too much. On the contrary I said they were dead, yet they had a lot of overtones. As in the drum doesn't resonate so much but there are tons of stray tones that appear when I hit the tom. I hope that cleared things up. And drmrdude, I enjoy resonance! That's what I'm trying to get this tom to do. I think I'll just tune all the drums up and then see how they sound. Any other suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drmrdude Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Okay I think I know what you're talking about. If I was you, I would take the drumheads off. Then I would put the resonant head back on. Just start with it finger tight and go say maybe one full turn on each lug. Then do maybe a half turn. Then I would do the same thing with the batter head, except with only one full turn. Then I would make adjustments from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ProMark93 Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Cool, I guess I'll try that, does anyone else have any suggestions? yeah...dead and overtone-y? try taking off both heads and tapping them...if it doesn't sound good when it's tapped, it won't sound good when it's played....if it's not in the heads...listen carefully while your tuning....for tuning I recommend the DTS one touch drum tuning system....it really helps evening it out if you're having trouble (www.drumtech.com/DTS) it's kind of hard to help though if you say dead AND overtone-y (which doesn't make sense)....try recording it and posting it....or just recording.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Puck Posted June 13, 2007 Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 If you are new to tuning check this guy out. He has about 8 tuning videos and hopefully that help you out. It helps to see it done vs. reading about it for some people. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BillConover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members qwertyMan Posted June 13, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 13, 2007 Yeah, I've seen those videos, they're helpful. Well, anyways, I took of the heads (a pain in the @#$ by the way because this is the first time I had to deal with the RIMS suspension system (or as Gretsch calls it, GTS suspension). I just basically took off the heads and put them back on, and they better now. I figure it's probably just the acoustics of the room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JWL Posted June 14, 2007 Members Share Posted June 14, 2007 I have NEVER tuned with a drum dial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members offramp Posted June 14, 2007 Members Share Posted June 14, 2007 I tried one for the very first time just yesterday. It's nice, I suppose, but not really any faster or more accurate than doing it by hand, which I've been doing for about 30 years, now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members qwertyMan Posted June 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2007 Well, It's a little better now, but I kinda want to change heads... You see, Guitar Center gave me $50 of free merchandise as an apology for forgetting to put in the 7"x8" tom (which I picked up the next day) and I used that money to get a Coated Ambassador for the 8" and Coated Emperors for the rest of the toms. I was thinking these would give me a little better sound than the Evans G2s. Also, I have heard that coating reduces overtones. Opinions? Should I wait for the Evans heads to wear out and then switch, or just switch them now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Majoria Posted June 16, 2007 Members Share Posted June 16, 2007 I'd swap the heads on the one that's the most unpleasant which from your original post sounds like the 12x9. If it's more to your liking then swap the rest. I wouldn't expect a huge difference between coated G2's and coated Emperors unless you got a bad set of G2's but clear G2's to coated Emperors may be more noticable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members qwertyMan Posted June 17, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 17, 2007 Yeah, they were clear G2's and I did swap them. WOW, what a HUGE difference! The Remos were a little hard to tune, but I think they are still seating, so that's ok but WOW, these heads give my toms barely ANY overtones whatsoever, I can't really practice the drums right now because it's too late, but in the morning, I'm going to swap all my toms' heads, and they're going to sound AWESOME! lol I'm excited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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