That seems odd. Can you describe what is particularly difficult about tuning it?

When I evenly tune it seems that there are dead spots which are flat or sharp to the main note.So far the way to avoid this dissonance is with tone-ring heads like Evans Genera dry.It sort of kills that magic BB sound.So now there is a small (1X2) pad resting via duct tape from the rim on the batter side about 1/2"from the edge.And play it in the middle.I'm using an Ambassador X batter and clear Ambasador snare side.

That's not typical. It should be easy to tune.

A few quick suggestions:

Are you evenly tuning by number of Turns? Drumdial? TuneBot? Pitch? These are all different and can lead to different outcomes. Hopefully not hugely different, but differences can come in with other factors (read on):

Did you start with new heads? Or is this using old heads which might be overstretched?

Does a new head spin around easily when you first put it on the drum? That's a way to check for out of round.

Have you tried taking the heads off and setting it on a very flat surface to see if it is warped somehow in that direction? (snare beds don't count as being warped)

Also check to see if the hoop is warped which could be the case with stamped hoops.

Does the "dead spot" happen with other heads?

Make sure you seat the head well while installing it. I have heard everything from "you should never apply pressure to a head to seat it" to "if necessary, jump up and down on a new head to get it to seat." What I do is tension the head a little beyond what I think the final pitch will be, get the head in tune with itself, apply a bit of pressure with the heel of my hand, lower the pitch of the drum to the point where it can just barely produce a tone (by the way, never turning a drum key more than a 1/4 turn at a time) and then tension it back up to the desired pitch. I quite often find dead spots on toms in their lower range until the head seats properly. Since snare drums are generally tuned a little to a lot tighter than a tom I don't find dead spots very often on them.

I will say that most of them time that my BB gets used for rental dates (and that is a lot) it will end up with a piece of gaffer's tape or Moongel just to control a touch of the overtone series. It doesn't take much. You might also consider a die cast hoop to dry pit the drum a little. I would certainly investigate the dead spot issue first however.

When I got the drum it had been abused-WAY overtightened with a double layer center-dot head and the arm of the throw snapped off.I did replace the non-original top rim with a 2.3 mm one,which is similar in effect to a cast rim-just not as much.I'm afraid it may be bent or warped,but if it is it isn't obvious.The new head spins freely,and I do the heel of your hand thing when tuning.I'll do more tuning experiments over the weekend-thanks all...

No 'heel of hand' thing, that's what's throwing your tuning out and possibly the flatness of your hoop. Also, 'seating' (over-tightening) the head can ruin it and it'll never tune up right.

1. Lay the hoop on the flatest surface you can find, usually a mica counter-top. If the hoop doesn't lay flat, gently push - pull against the edge of the counter until the hoop sits flush to the counter.

2. using opposite lugs; hand tighten all the tension rods.

3. Making small incremental turns, (half turns at first, quarter to eighth turns afterwards,) go around the drum using opposite lugs to bring the head up to pitch.

4. Tap a stick about one inch in front of each tension rod. Go around the drum matching the pitch of the rods until they -all sound the same pitch- when you tap in front of the rods.

This is the tuning method I use. Works every time. Just follow Bob's instructions one step at a time.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxm3QunDjUs[/ame]

John