Drum tuning bible

Drum WoodsThe exterior is mostly appearance related, although anythingthat can add mass and dampen vibration will again influencesound (i.e. tom mounts). An easy thing to target here is thehardware and most drummers notice when toms aremounted to the shell. This is an easy target for illustratingthe effect of something that can dampen shell vibration andinfluence sound. What we don’t always focus on is theexterior layer of the shell itself.Laminate materials being essentially heat set resins, do nothave much in the way of attractive sound characteristics.They do offer extremely durable finishes that widen thechoice of appearances possible. They are heavy materialsfrom a bulk density viewpoint, and will inhibit thetransmission of sound around the circumference of thedrum, but aid in the transmission of sound at 90 degrees tothe heads. This may exactly what you want if you are a highvolume player.true Meranti. Natural inhabitants of thePhilippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, theyare large trees; 61.5m (200 ft) in heightwith a trunk of up to 2m (6ft 6in) indiameter. Asian 'Mahogany' is oftensourced from the endangered Dipterocarpforests of Indonesia, Malaysia and thePhilippines. Dependant on the source treethe timber types are often known asMeranti, Lauan and Keruing. Hence thename Philippine mahogany.In subtle ways, some designers believe that the applicationof paints and various other finishes influence the tone aswell. This has merit when you consider that as you addresins to bond plies, you are also filling pores within thewood and also inhibit its ability to vibrate at differentfrequencies. How much this influences sound will dependupon how many plies and finish treatments. The samehappens when finishes are applied. Some believe theapplication of wood oils are better, others believe its their socalled“vintage” finish. Others don’t think it matters at all.What’s better? I suspect that will be up to you in the endbased upon what you want to hear.What frequencies get effected? That all depends uponthese combinations of variables, but is sort of boils down tothis:• Thinner drum shells resonate easier andgenerally lead to a very open sounding drum. A goodexamples of this is the Premier Genista.• Thicker shelled drums are dryer sounding drums.A popular example of this is the YAMAHA RecordingCustom series of drum.• Drums which have counter hoops adhered insideare warm, yet have a controlled resonance. A goodexample is the DW series of drums.• Drum which have no counter hoops tend to havebrighter attack and more overall high-frequencyresonance.Price and Value:In the end, the core woods are most responsible for thesound of the kit, but not entirely. Price is a reflection of theability to get and tool wood into a shell and the end usersperception of the value they received. If it cost a great dealbut does not sound good to you, then there is little value.All softwood trees are fast growing whereas maple, trueexotic US mahogany trees or Honduras mahogany are veryslow growing. These trees growing in the wild are about 200years old when harvested from the rain forest. The reasonold growth tree lumber is so valuable is because the treesgrew slowly in a dense forest and limited light. The resulthttp://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/id14.html (3 of 4)1/22/2005 4:11:26 PM