2-Tone Dissonance

[Waraba]

My favorite djembe is quite irregular. The shape is elliptical and inconsistent as a wobbly planet's orbit, including a nearly straight edge at one point. However, the sound is amazing. But...

It was reheaded about two months ago. I've been gradually bringing it up, and at this point feel that one or two more pulls will get it into "solo" pitch forever. There is just one problem. I'm getting two tones, since two-thirds of the head is noticeably higher than the remaining one-third of the head. When I play (tones or slaps) I can hear the clangy dissonance. To get that lower third of the head, I would need to skip over a number of verts without pulling them. My intuition tells me to do it--but I've never done this before. This drum is very temperamental and loves to break skins on a whim. Here's my question:

Should I skip over to the lower 3rd of the drum and pull from there, or--

Just pull in one or two more diamonds from where I am and hope the dissonance goes away?

[michi]

Until a few years ago, I used to tune my drums once I started the second row by pulling a diamond in every fourth pair of verticals. When the row was complete, I undid the weave and put a diamond in every every third pair, then undid the weave again when the row was complete and used every second pair, and finally used adjacent pairs. The idea was to bring down the rings level around the circumference.

This works, and I never had problems with uneven tension that way. I gave up on doing this because it's labor-intensive and adds a lot of wear to the rope with the continuous weaving and undoing the weave again. These days, I simply work my way around flipping adjacent pairs and put up with rings precessing a little around the perimeter. By the time the row is complete, they are level again.

But chances are that your drum will be fine if you skip over a few verticals to even out the tension.

With out-of-round shells, it is usually possible to find an orientation where, if you draw a line through the center of the drum, the left and right half are pretty much even in size and shape. (Most out-of-round shells are either oval or more-or-less triangle-shaped.) Mount the skin with the spine on that line; the symmetry helps to keep the pitch of the left and right tones even.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Trog]

Should I skip over to the lower 3rd of the drum and pull from there

That is what I do when I am close to final tuning.

[Waraba]

Thanks, Michi and Trog!