Tunning my Tom's

[PeteYounce]

First, I have Pearl hdwr on my drums but, I have an Old Ludwig "66" Hollywood" outfit. And I'm still in love with it.
Any way, I'm just getting back into playing again, and I would like to tune my toms so they have a mellow, low, smooth sound. I have a 12";13" and a 16" floor tom.
I have used my drums for years with external home made "velvet" cut mufflers. They did great, But would like to get a different low, heavy sound. Need some input from you guys. I just tried out some muffler rings but I had to retune my toms too high to get a good sound. Will different heads Help. Or do I just need bigger tom"s?

[elmo]

PeteYouce,

bigger toms may not be the only solution to your question. try new heads firsts. i suggest Evans g2's for your batter heads and Evans resonants for your reso' side. try to tune as low as you can on your batter side and try to get the same tone from your reso' side. this will bring out a open, low, mellow and really warm sounding drum.

start off with your floor tom first, so you work your way up the toms. (if you start off with your first tom, it's likely your floor tom will sound too much like a cardboard box.)

if you still desire less overtones from your tom then i suggest muffling it a LITTLE with gaffa tape, moongel or any other method you like.
hope this has helped.

[DED]

Pete,

I have a '65 set of Ludwigs and this has worked for me:

Tom Batter: Remo Renaissance Emperors
Tom Reso: Coated Ambassador
Bass Drum Batter: Remo Power Stroke 3
Bass Drum Reso: Remo Coated Ambassador

I tune them low and they sound great (you do have to smack 'em kinda hard to get them to speak though).

Even though my kit is "as new" the bearing edges are pretty typical of the time. Very round and somewhat irregular. The Renaissance heads seem to forgive these quirks a lot more than other heads I've tried.

[PeteYounce]

Originally posted by elmo
PeteYouce,

bigger toms may not be the only solution to your question. try new heads firsts. i suggest Evans g2's for your batter heads and Evans resonants for your reso' side. try to tune as low as you can on your batter side and try to get the same tone from your reso' side. this will bring out a open, low, mellow and really warm sounding drum.

start off with your floor tom first, so you work your way up the toms. (if you start off with your first tom, it's likely your floor tom will sound too much like a cardboard box.)

if you still desire less overtones from your tom then i suggest muffling it a LITTLE with gaffa tape, moongel or any other method you like.
hope this has helped. :p

Thanks, Elmo and DED;) When I get son spare change I'll try some of these suggestions. py