Another tuning question..

[Sdready]

Hey there

We have a new drum circle now and two members just bought Djembes.... they brought them today. Well They´re cheap ones and the two are beginners and first want to check out if Djembe drumming is the right thing for them....

So I helped them with the tuning.... unfortunately I never had to do tuning on my own Djembe yet and also, I don´t really know how much the skins of the cheap Djembes can take.
How do I find out? I added the first row today (there was none when they came by mail) and the sound got better (of course).... now I wonder how much better it can get... I really don´t want to pop their skin. Too bad we also don´t have someone else in the small drum circle who is more experienced in tuning.

How do I tell if its safe to add more diamonds, or to start a second row at all? IF I start a second row, do I understand that right, that I don´t have to do a complete row? Can I simply add 3-4 Diamonds and check out what happens? Or would it be too much one-sided pressure on the skin? The skin felt kinda stretchy though, not like mine... so maybe it even needs alot more tuning?
Sound was uh... ok... not overwhelming... but well, I didn´t expect that anyway...

So, any advice would be very welcome
Have a great day!
Sdready

[Djembe-nerd]

Press the center of the skin with the thumb with approx the same force as if you were screwing in a screw in a hard wood. If the skin at the center goes down more than 1-2 mm it can still take more tightening.

Another way, if you pull a diamond and the diamond opens up back if you release the rope, that is also a sign of the head being quite tight.

If pulling a diamond changes the sound/pitch quite a bit, that is also a sign that you are close to reaching the point.

Best of all, go by the sound, depending on the thickness of the skin, "generally" this is what you will see.

Thin skin : thundering bass, cracking slap
medium skin : good bass, cracking slap, good tone
thick skin : Ok Bass, good slap , deeper than good tone.

[rachelnguyen]

Except that crappy drums may never get to any of those levels, no matter what the thickness of the skin or how tight you pull it.

What I found on my poor quality Toca Indonesian djembe was that if I tightened it high, it ended up muffling itself instead of giving me the nice sharp sound I was looking for. I eventually found a level that was high enough to sound decent without choking the life out of the sound. (I did, finally, just sell that drum and bought a high quality Malian drum. Made a HUGE difference.)

As to your other questions.

I am perfectly happy to do a partial row if the drum is tight enough.

As far is how tight to tune it, my answer is to tune it until it sounds good. If you end up breaking a skin in the process, so be it, LOL. I would never play an untuned drum just to preserve a skin. However, given that these are beginners and probably don't want to rehead their brand new drums, I would just keep tuning until it sounds good enough to play.

[michi]

I am perfectly happy to do a partial row if the drum is tight enough.

When doing diamonds on the second row, if you flip every pair of verticals, you can end up with the rings slightly tilted, being lower where the partially completed row is. Personally, I don't mind that, even though it means that the skin has slightly uneven tension.

You can avoid a partially completed row by flipping only every second or third pair of verticals, so you can complete the row without overtightening while maintaining even tension. The downside is that, when it comes to retuning, you have undo the row again, putting more wear on the rope.

I used to do this, but no longer bother. I don't think the gain is worth the effort.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Dugafola]

You can avoid a partially completed row by flipping only every second or third pair of verticals, so you can complete the row without overtightening while maintaining even tension. The downside is that, when it comes to retuning, you have undo the row again, putting more wear on the rope.

I used to do this, but no longer bother. I don't think the gain is worth the effort.

Cheers,

Michi.

me too. i used to do every other or every 2/3/4...whatever i needed to get around and get it up to pitch. too much work.

i figure if i do a good enough job making it even during the initial tunings sans knots, then i should be good to go.

[Djembe-nerd]

I used to do this, but no longer bother.

When I did the diamonds earlier , the last 3-4 diamonds would be below the place where I play the djembe. Every time I tune, I had to open these and put them again. Now I just play the djembe above the last 2-3 diamonds I last put. The skin is tightest over there usually. Slight pitch difference specially in goat skins from spine to side but I have them tight enough to not make much difference.