Need more bass

[Drumaholic]

When I tune my heads to my desired pitch they end up pretty tight, to the point where if I tighten any further I'll strip the threads. They are easier to play when tight, but the drawback is less bass and less sustain overall. Is there something I can do to the skins to improve on this? I thought of soaking them till soft then mounting/stretching to decrease thickness. Will this help, hurt, or is it a waste of time?

[limberic]

Drumaholic wrote: "Is there something I can do to the skins to improve on this? I thought of soaking them till soft then mounting/stretching to decrease thickness. Will this help, hurt, or is it a waste of time?"

No. 1 - don't tighten up your lugs to the point they're near being stripped!!! (and use grease - btw)

Here's what I'd suggest - First, completely disassemble your heads if you haven't done so all ready. Let your head skin relax, equilibrate. Then slowly reassemble and tune. Keep tension at all six lugs equal (test the sound local to each lug by lightly rapping the head about 2.5 cm (inch) in from the inside edge of the shell with your lug wrench). Tighten in complete passes around your drum.

Do each drum, one at a time, and tune each up to where you get good sustain - regardless of how far apart the tones on each drum are - and optimize tone. See if you can't get a good bass on your tumba that way. Then bring your conga up or down to get the tone distance between them where you want it.

IF THIS DOESN'T WORK: Then I would consider taking the heads apart, soaking them and repositioning the metal ring inside skin's folds (I'm assuming that Toca Trads are not sown heads but just folded around the inner ring then up into the inside of the chrome ring that the lugs tighten). I remember you saying that the chrome ring was about 2" below the top edge of your drums - that's nice for playing & not hitting your hands on the ring BUT maybe it is a bit too far slipped down and that may be the heat of your problem.

Finally, consider what you are expecting your bass to sound like out of your tumba and how adept your hand technique is. You may be expecting too much.

Good Drumming,
Eric

[Bongo Boy]

That's astounding. I've taken the head completely off my quinto, reassembled by turning the lugs as far as I can with my bare fingers to get them started evenly. From that point, I've been turning each lug only about ONE FULL turn (360 deg) to get the drum to optimum open tone. At most two full turns when I tune it 'high', and at that point the overtones and sustain pretty much suck.

At even my 'high' tuning, the nuts are not on far enough to expose ANY threads on the bottom of the drawbolts. This is an LP Galaxy Giovanni, which I believe is identical to any recent LP Galaxy in terms of hardware.

I have nothing to compare the skin thickness to (except my bongo heads--so lets not compare THAT), so I really can't say if these heads are 'thick' for a quinto. I'd sure like to know exactly what pitch congas are 'typically' tuned to when folks refer to 'high' and 'low' tunings, so there's some basis for comparison.