I've been playing professionally for about 20 yrs and have never tuned my drums to an actual "note" - not sayin' it's bad, but I find the tonal spectrum I like and stick with it.

I personally start w/ the bottom or "resonant" head and tune it just a touch higher than where I like my batter side, so that way it's doing its job as a "resonant" head. Then I add the batter, and away I go!

70's Gretsch's are awesome and should pretty much tune themselves - but like any drum and drum set, you have to tune them for what they were made for. I.E. - you're not gonna get a Bonham vistalite set-up to sound like Max Roach's little gretsch's - and vice-versa.... You get the point ; )

I can totally relate to your pain. CryBaby

Just when you think you're on the right track, something happens to throw off the whole equation.

Your 10" and 12" toms are 5 luggers. I feel this makes it a lot trickier to tune, since there isn't a direct opposite lug to adjust per side. Adjust one lug that is too high or too low and then you have to slightly adjust the opposite two lugs. Maybe I'm just approaching it the wrong way.

Ironically, I just bought new Evans G2's for the tops and Genera Reso's for the bottoms, but I only have a 12x8 and 14x14 to wrestle with. It had Ambassadors for the top and bottoms, so it's going to be a totally different sound with the new heads.

I have a Drum Dial and I use it to get close and then micro adjust by sound and ear. You've only been working with the 10" tom, but try the 12". If you get it dialed in then retry the 10" or move down to the 13".

I've seen examples with the following tuning ranges:

[INDENT]Highside

14" Snare - F|G|A|B

10" Tom - D|E|F

12" Tom - A|B|C

13" Tom - F|G|A

14" Tom - E|F|G

16" Tom - C|D|E

Lowside[/INDENT]

If you are concerned with the 16" being too low, start with that drum and work your way up.

One tuning range, which gives a nice spread, could be the following:

[INDENT]Snare - F

10" - D

12" - B

13" - G

16" - E[/INDENT]

Good luck and keep at it. As frustrating as it is, this is the best way to get familiar with your instrument (s). I'm learning

-Tim

I think you've got that 10" tuned too low. By the time you get to the 16" the interval will be too low to tune it well. I'd start with the 16 as well and go up. I tune to specific notes because I like the consistency and I've been doing it this way so long it's fast and repeatable. For my style I like "low-ish" tuned toms so I do it like this on my Yamaha kit:

10", reso=E, bat=B

12", reso=B, bat=F#

14", reso=F#, bat=C#

16", reso=C#, bat=G#

This puts the toms all evenly spaced as 4ths which is how many tune even if they don't realize it.

For my 60's Slingerland kit I do this:

12", reso=A#, bat=F#

13", reso=G, bat=D

16", reso=D, bat=A#

This puts the rack toms spaced as a 3rd and the space between the 13" and 16" a 4th. I just like how this sounds. Again this is a low tuned setup. Jazz players will tune much higher.

For bass drums I like to tune the reso head to just above wrinkle and the batter head a little tighter until the rebound is nice. I don't really feel there's much sense in tuning bass drums to pitches. Just my 2 bits.

Steve

Bernard Purdie said at the very first Zildjian Day in Chicago in the early 80's that you should tune (tension) your BD FIRST,,as that is the most offensive if too low or too high..

He stressed it is a BASS drum..not treble drum..

Then,do your FT,then mounted tom(s),then lastly,snare...

So I have done that ever since...

Maybe that will help...

Phew, thanks a lot for you quick and *extremely* helpful replies!!

[Dexter74] Thanks for the encouragement and the advice. I’m going to try the different tunings suggested in the other replies, but if things get too frustrating, I may just give up trying to get actual notes on the toms and just aim for nice, regular pitches that flow nicely from one tom to the next :-D Also, the idea of starting with the reso head first may actually help instead of complicating things as I first thought. I’ll give that a try.

[Thornbeck] You’re absolutely right, I think 5-lug toms are harder to tune (I thought about it at some point yesterday, during my tuning debacle). Out of my 3 aerial toms, the only one that sounds pretty good right now (a solid, low punch with no overtones) is the 13”, a 6 lugger (I’m almost afraid to tinker with it :-D). Thanks a lot for all the tuning ranges you list; I’m sure one of them will prove to be the one!

[Steve] Thanks for the two tuning suggestions; I’ll try them, starting with the 16” and working my way back. I agree with the bass drum comment; after putting the EMAD head and the reso head (with a 5” hole) I tuned them pretty low (compared to what I used to) and it sounds really good. No need for the pillow/blanket I used to stuff inside (I’m ashamed to say :#/).

[Blairndrums] I already have the bass drum tuned and the FT doesn’t sound too shabby, so I’ll follow the order you suggest, thanks.

Thanks again,

Alex

I have always tuned from low too high, The 10" tom do you have a single ply head you can try on it? the reason I am saying this is the small drum with the 5 lugs sometimes they get choked by a 2 ply head.

I thought the ideal tuning for any 1970's drum set was low as possible and then duct tape that sucker to kill that annoying sustain.... Unless you had the extra scratch for Deadringers.

LOL!! Laughing HLaughing HLaughing HLaughing H

.....then put a bonnet on it! Those babies will sound right, as long as you have a great engineer to tame them!

Thanks for the indulgent humor!!

Hello again,

Another grueling session yesterday: 5 hours of “tuning ordeal”. In the end, looking at all your suggestions, the one that best seemed to fit my drum set turned out to be Thornbeck’s “high tuning”:

............Batter.............Reso (1 Minor 3rd above batter head)

10”..........F...................F (shallow tom -> same tuning as batter head to increase sustain)

12”..........C...................D#

13”..........A...................C

16”..........D#.................F#

RESULT: the toms sound good, with a powerful, open sound. I’ll try to record a small audio file and upload it – if possible – to give you an idea.

A couple of small objections: the 10” sounds very bright, but I think it ended up too high with respect to the 12”. I think I’ll tune it down to a E or even lower (since there is a minor 3rd between the 12” and 13”, a fourth seems like a bit much between the 10” and the 12”). Also, the 16” floor tom sounds a bit low – the jump with respect to the 13” is too wide. An E or F would probably sound better.

I’ll keep you posted :-D

Alex

PS. Ickybaby’s “duct tape the heck out of them” comment is very funny, but sadly very close to reality (that’s how I used to “tune” them a few years back Eye Ball).