bass drum

Posted by Administrator on March 7, 2010 under Drums

bass drum

Tuning a drum set's bass drum is so easy, even a drummer can do it. And all it takes is three simple steps.

1. Throw a small pillow in the drum when either of the heads is off the shell.

You don't need a full queen-size pillow or anything. Just a pillow large enough to be able to lean gently against the batter head. That'll give the perfect amount of muffling to give a powerful attack sound without too much ring or sustain.

2. Tune the front (resonant head) incredibly low.

Yes, it needs to be just above the tension where it ripples and looks hideous. Go around the perimeter of the drum tuning up a quarter turn on each lug so there's no excessive tension in any one spot on the drum. It's really important that the pitch of the head come up uniformly. Tune about a quarter-turn past ripple tension, then push hard on the center of the head to seat it. Re tune to a quarter-turn above ripple tension again.

3. Tune the batter head (the one you hit) to about a major third above the other head.

Crank up that other head, following all previous steps on it as well. So hypothetically, if you're paying attention, it's been tuned above ripple, pushed in, and then tuned up again. Now that you've done that, tune it up that major third I mentioned, so that the two heads have a nice resonant chord between them. If you mic your drums or play live, it'll make a big difference.

You should be all set to play now. Just affix a beater pad (if you use one) and reattach your bass pedal, and you should be set to pound the kit like Bonham. Or something like that.

Walter Baumann is a musician, writer, and computer gamer who also occasionally finds time to eat and sleep. He plays with and recommends Vic Firth drumsticks.

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What kind of bass drum pillow should I use?

Is there a point it getting a weighted bass drum pillow that is actually made to muffle the drum rather than just a regular pillow? Does it work any better? I know the weighted part is to keep it in place but my set has a port hole so I can adjust it when I need to.

A weighted BD pillow will slightly change the sound sound adding a little more bass to it, but quite frankly you'd need to be a good engineer with good gear and a really good hear to hear the difference.

I personally use the Evans EQ Pad:

http://store.daddario.com/category/144822/EQ_Pad_Bass_Drum_Damper

Does a great job, cheap and I've found it to be really easy to work with. there are other muffling device such as the Remo Muffle-ring but they don't do as good a job.

If you've got a pillow that works just fine for you and you like the sound you have I suggest you just keep it that way. If you want to change the sound of the drum swapping the heads will make alot more a difference than a pillow.

Hope this helps.