LP Extended Rim & Skin: any sound difference?

[Kaban]

Greetings People,

I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge/opinion/experience of the LP extended rim & skin. I know they are on the Galaxy and FG Accents, but do they make a difference in sound?

Godspeed

[Thebreeze]

Kaban...I have had Galaxies both Fiberglass and Ash just for a brief period and I can't say that I noticed any kind of a difference in sound due to an extended Rim. The way I see it is that once the skin is tightened down to the playing tension that the only thing involved in the sound is the skin on the playing surface from bearing edge to bearing edge. I may be wrong since I am not a sound engineer of drum maker but that's my opinion. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this? I for one would be interested as well as you in finding out.

[Kaban]

Breeze,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess the extended rim is for comfort reasons, and not sound production.

[rhythmrhyme]

Hey Kaban,

I haven't been able to compare the exact same drum, with the exact same head with a comfort crown vs. traditional, so unfortunately I can't answer your question. Initially I thought the comfort curve was easier to play, but this changed for me over the years. I now find them bulky and to sometimes get in the way.

One thing that I have noticed is that when a comfort curve crown is mounted reasonably high on a drum (the way I like them) the angle of the head where it "breaks over" the bearing edge is significantly less than with a traditional crown. My traditional crowns look to be around 75 degrees where my LP Gio's with comfort curves crowns are more like 45-50 degrees (heads I mounted myself). I find that the lower angled break over makes tuning much easier (less tension on the wrench when I pull them) and more responsive (less turns on the wrench to bring the pitch up). I also find that I get less of those nerve racking "crack" sounds that happen as you pull the head over the bearing edge while tuning up and generally I get the impression (although I have no way of objectively measuring it) that there is less strain on the heads at the point where they break over the bearing edge. In spite of all this, I have grown to prefer a traditional crown that is a nice tight fit with the drum (not too big around) as it creates a very low profile that I don't contact as often with my hands and which looks better to me as well.

[jorge]

Good observation RR, what you say is true. A shallower angle from the playing surface over the bearing edge down to the flesh hoop does actually decrease the tension on the lugs, on the ring of skin between the bearing surface and the flesh hoop, and on the flesh hoop and rim. There is also less force inward (toward the center of the drumhead) on the bearing edge. All of this derives from the static mechanics of the head and rim system. Unfortunately, the cost of this is having the rim and skin up higher and more likely to get in the way as you play.

Incidentally, the flip side of this is an increase in lug tension and rim forces as the skin stretches and the rim gets lower on the drum. This can lead to increased wear on the threads of the lugs and nuts, as well as tearing of skins and bending of rims. This was part of the problem they were trying to solve with the comfort curve rims, but as with most solutions, compromises had to be made.

[Kaban]

RR, and Jorge... thanks for your insight. I think I will have to read it over again to fully digest the information.

[Mike]

Call me fanatic old-skool , but I have come to detest the comfort curve rims.
It is traditional for me only, regardless of possible hardware wear & tear issues.

[Marcus]

In the other world, the world of work--as an engineer there are always discussions of the performance of equipment at the "knee" of the performance curve. Younger engineers just love to find ways to press the performance and evaluate whether equipment will operate in specification. Older engineers say "if you originally design the equipment properly, you do not need to always press the upper limits".

My response as a young old fart----design the rims and lugs and shell for longevity. Don't go cheap unless your designing a student conga that is not built for performance in the first place. A medium to upper end production conga ought to be designed and built with sturdy hardware. Get so tired of the corporate world decreasing quality just to increase profits by only a margin.

....Marcus