drum tuner

I've been thinkin about buyin a drum tuner but im not sure.

I found one for only $60 on musicians friend, but the other thing is that most people can tune by ear. I'm tryin to learn how to do that but i wanna get this tuner.

Should I buy the tuner or go with the classic way of by ear?

The tuner is only good if you can tune by ear IMO. What you do is tune your drums, then take readings. That way, next time you'll be able to get it close faster. The tuners don't work as tuners to me. They just take tension readings after the drum is tuned.

I own both the Tama Tension Watch and the Drum Dial and have used both. Honestly, they both work the exact same way and i found neither to be more accurate then the other.

In any event, i don't think either is worth it. The devices are not nessecary if you know the principles of tuning and despite what people think, they do not make the act of initial tuning any easier, they make tuning the next time around easier if you record the dial settings. And unless you are doing a head change at the exact same tempature as the time before, the readings are not going to do much but act as a guideline.

I am used to doing full kit head changes (4 toms and a snare) before every show (about 5 times a week) so drum dials, torque keys, etc would do nothing but slow me down.

I do know people who like them and i don't consider them to be worthless, but to me, its a gimmick that caters towards people who like gadgets. No device will replace your ears and touch when it comes to drum tuning.

I have a Drum Dial and it does speed up the tuning process, but you still have to fine tune by ear. I always say "it gets you in the ballpark, but you have find your seat yourself." Now that I have a better handle on tuning, I don't use it much any more, but it was helpful for a while.

I've never had or used one, but it sounds to me like until you do learn to tune "by ear" the thing would be pretty useless.