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 The Steel Guitar Forum
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 Tuning Country Drums
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| Author | Topic: Tuning Country Drums |
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Howard Tate Member From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA |
posted 15 June 2006 12:51 PM
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I didn't want to hijack b0b's thread but it reminded me. Country drums just do not sound as clean to me as in the past. Besides playing louder, I wonder if the tuning has something to do with it. It seems to me that drummers used to tine to "Bb" or even "B", now our drummer tunes to "A". Not that it sounds out of tune, it just has a looser, "floppy" sound, especially the snare. I don't know how else to describe it. Am I wrong, or is my memory faulty? ------------------ |
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Stephen Gambrell Member From: Ware Shoals, South Carolina, USA |
posted 15 June 2006 02:09 PM
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Tuning the drums is a lost art, I believe. We had a GREAT drummer, Tommy Mooney(no relation), who'd spend hours tuning his 5-piece kit. And everywhere we played, if there was a FOH soundman, we'd get compliments on how well the kick and bass blended. I think he'd tune the kick to a "C" and the go up the scale. But his drums sure sounded "sweet" in the mix! |
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Bob Martin Member From: Madison Tn |
posted 15 June 2006 10:11 PM
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I agree with you guys I love a well tuned tight kit especially in the studio. I hate obnoxious overtone rings. Don't get me wrong that's where the good sound of drums come from the overtones but I like them better if the sound a little musical rather than each drum in the kit having different overtones. I don't know if it's a younger thing though I can remember plenty of drummers back 20 to 30 years ago getting terrible sounds out of their drums maybe either the drummer is aware of it or he isn't not sure but it's a very good topic. Sometimes in the studio I'll spend over an hour trying to make the drums sound good for recording. Bob |
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Frank Parish Member From: Nashville,Tn. USA |
posted 16 June 2006 12:23 AM
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There is just as many methods and maybe more to tuning drums than there is steel guitar. There is more instruction out there now than ever before. I'm amazed when I walk in a local drum shop compared to what there was in the 60's. What I'm hearing today is a lot of higher uneven and less muffled snare drums than ever before. On some stuff I like it but for country music say like the standards I like the thick deep sound of a good wood snare drum. I never cared for Jack Greens snare drum in the ET band. A lot of these guys are choking their drums to death and not getting the tone out of them that they could if they'd loosen it up and tune it evenly. They don't make drums with internal mufflers anymore so you have to either play them wide open where it rings for days or you have to use some other method. The plastic tones rings are really nice and they muffle it evenly too. You can get them indifferent sizes so you can change it throughout the night too. The Beatles would cover the drums with blankets and use cardboard for the drums when they needed that certain something. I prefer the sound of a well tuned jazz drummers kit but of course that wouldn't fit in country music. |
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