Changing & Tuning Your Snare Drum Heads

An instructional video on replacing the drum heads on a snare drum. It also covers the basics of tuning - http://www.DrumsonSALE.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• snare
• drum
• tune
• change
• head
• key
• fix
• replace

[allmetaliswelcome]

if you want to replace the stock heads on your set, but you don't have much money than what head is the most important to change for changing the sound: the batter or the resonant?

[DrumsonSALE]

@allmetaliswelcome

By far it would be the batter head for the toms and bass drum - The resonant head is important but not as crucial if it is old (as long as it is not worn out)

For a snare drum, both heads are as important - I actually changed a bottom head on a snare the other day and it made a world of difference, even with a heavily worn-in batter head.

[NJW3]

Does tightening the lugs closest to the wires also eliminate excess buzzing? And, do wire markings on the bottom head mean the wires are too tight?

[DrumsonSALE]

@NJW3 Loosening the wires acts a bit like a snare bed; the slack in the head makes the head a bit softer at that spot and reduces the snare buzz a bit... The wires will always put marks on the head over time, but extreme tension on the snare wires will push them into the head and create "dents" with the wires.

[Eurodrummer666]

At 0:33 you change tension of the wires while they are engaged, normally, this is bad for the resonant head because it "mashes" them... This should be done while wires are disengaged. But your video is interesting.

[DrumsonSALE]

@Eurodrummer666 - Good point, but I disagree... The only way to find the tensioning "sweet spot" is to play the drum with the snares engaged and change the tension until you have the snare response dialed in - There are several throw-offs that actually have "stops" on the lever that give you multiple tension settings; this is the same as turning the knob. Really, you only mash the snares at extreme tensions, which I don't recommend anyway because it completely chokes out the snare sound.

[920connor]

If you have a 14.5 snare drum head do you have to buy a 14.5 drum head or can you buy a 15

[xbulldog12x]

@920connor there is no such thing as a 14.5

you most likely measured it wrong. its either a 14 in drum or 15 in drum

[Pelleman666]

Sorry, didn't hear that you said how the resonant head was supposed to be tuned, my mistake, just reeally tired right now:p

[Pelleman666]

God! Wtf's up with that annoying depressing background music?

Otherwise.. A Pretty informative video, but I though you'd tell me how the resonant head was supposed to be tuned too, if it's supposed to be the same as the top, or one octave up or whatever:p

[fouellet1701]

He says to set the pitch of the bottom head slightly higher than the top, yet it sounds the exact opposite when he taps on the heads! Then at the end he says he raised the pitch of the top slightly higher...

[kc5tng]

@920connor - They dont make a 14.5 snare drum head. When snare drums are listed in size ...what the numbers mean is: 5 1/2 x 14 equals 5 1/2 " in depth and 14" in diameter. Some may list their sizes as 5.5 x 14 or 6.5 x 14.. the small number refers to the depth of the drum which has nothing to do with the drum head size. the drum diameters are always listed in even numbers.

[fillecool2]

Dude, my guitars is much easier to tune!

[rocou]

PLEASE my snare is ressonating like hell, and i dont know how to tune it up to have more dry sound...if anyone have some tip, or something please respond...thanx

[kakushi27]

lol tention knob

[yousagayfish]

I dont use a star pattern at all,

I dont suggest doing it and makeing two different sounds per star due to confusion P:

I fine tune and make ALL the parts of the drum by the screws sound the same