Sounds like a good gadget for my untrained ears. Thanks for the tip!

Hey woodworking genius Jeff! You say untrained ear. Do you find that you are tone deaf? (I am asking in all seriousness). Can you "match pitch?". In other words, if you played a note on a piano can you sing that same note? If so, you possesses the raw materials necessary to tune a drum correctly. You also need to be able to tell is a note is higher or lower. If you cannot, and there is no shame in that, then something like a TuneBot might be helpful. There was some discussion about that unit here a few months ago.

Yes, I had a thread going on tuning drums a few months ago . I think I am a little tone deaf. You were of great help to me in my thread back then. I have downloaded the drum tuning Bible. My problem is too many irons in the fire. Between working on drums, practicng, tuning drums, gabbing on this site and , oh ya, my cabinet jobs, I kind of jump around from one thing to the next. I have been working on tuning up those Fibes drums that I restored last summer. I cant seem to get them to sound good at all. They are really cool drums but I am not in love with the sound at all, yet. They have remo black dot heads and I bought some new Evans clear reso heads for them. I just need to keep playing with them. My Rogers KOA were easy, threw them heads on and they sound great without much effort, same goes for my Slingys.

Every drum is different and you have to spend some time figuring out what a particular kit will and won't do and what it does best. I am not a fan of CS heads as I find they create a bit of a "synthetic" sound on impact. Some guys like them and I have heard it suggested by Purdie and others that they are THE choice for Vistalite concert toms. I don't have any Vistalite concert toms so I cannot speak to that.

It's a long story that I won't divulge here, but I had a Pearl W/F kit from the mid seventies until I sold it about two years ago. It was horrible and untuneable. (sorry billnvick, but mine was truly a dog) It's what caused my obsession with drum tuning. I am sure some new edges would have solved the problem for that kit, but I opted to sell instead. Try some new heads on that Fibes kit, or just on 1 tom and see what it will do for you. Once you find a winning combination, then you can buy a set of matching heads.

Balancing time between work, family and the many varied aspects of this hobby or obsession is always difficult. Focus on the things that will matter a year from now. I always say that but often fail to do it myself.

I mentioned the Tune Bot to my girlfriend before Christmas. Lo and Behold... I received a Tune Bot in my Christmas Stocking! It's still in the box... but I swear I'll try it one day!

Been playing drums over 40 years and always manage to get them sounding pretty good with my drum key and ears. And, believe me, I CAN'T carry a note... although I do have big ears! Could that have something to to with it?!! LoLoLoLo

Mark

i have been wondering about one of these for awhile myself. i am tone deaf and i hate it. i can't match anything and have a hard time telling which tone is higher or lower. i have to use a tuner to tune my guitars, can't tune em by ear but if it is out of tune i can hear that, but can't fix it without the tuner. so how often do you have to tune your drums? do they go out of tune like say a guitar does? as far as the kit i have now...it seemed pretty easy to tune, i followed the instructions tnsquint gave me step by step and it just fell right in place. now that other kit i had did not want to coopperate with me at all and i did the same with both kits. anyway just curious how much it would benifit me to purchase one of these or any drum tuner.

KK Robyn

Here's the deal.

This is science not opinion.

EVERY drum has an inherent note. It's made into the shell. smaller diameter drums with thicker shells will be higher pitched. Large diameter drums with thinner shells will be low pitched.

This "fundamental" note generally becomes more pronounce as the drum ages and is played.

The purest tone that any drum will produce is this fundamental. If all the lugs are tuned exactly to that note, the drum will SING with a clear tone with few overtones and it will have it's longest sustain.

You may also tune up or down from this note with predictable effects on sustain and pitch.

That's where the tune bot comes it. It greatly assists in zeroing in each lug to exactly the fundamental note of the drum or to the desired pitch/resonance.

Yes, drums need to be occasionally re tuned. Just like guitars, they can slip out of tune through playing, head stretch, temperature, humidity.