Humidity and tuning

[Congadelica]

Recent weeks in the UK we have had such varying temps and humidity , Ive noticed such a change my drums from day to day . AT first i was thinking its my style or tecnique, like i say certain grooves just dont seem to have same feel day to day . Ive been thinking maybe its the water buffallo skins and i need to change to cow or mule . would this change of skin alter this problem.
Im new to the tumbadora , well 6 months things are going well but this recent getting my drums in tune is getting to be a bit of a pain in the ass.

marco

[Tonio]

Water buffalo is more tempermental than say cowhide, not sure of mule yet.

But even cowhide is tempermental . Its an on going thing for damp enviroments. It seems to shorten the life of the skin, especially if the humidity/temperature changes drastically often.

I remember when I was in Japan, it was terrrible being so moist. Gotta keep cranking the lugs !! But its better than being frozen

Keep your lugs clean and lubricated, and use judicial maintenance on them often if you tend to loosen when not playing.

I suppose thats the biggest reason to have synthetic skins -bleck.

T

[Congadelica]

If Im honest , I dont back of the tuning when not playing unless im not going to play for more than 2 days weekend vacations etc....... I play day to day for approx 2 hrs daily weekends i can be doing upto 4hrs . I have gotten lazy backing off the skins. I may try to back of more often to see if it helps . Im still leaning towards getting different skins . thanks for your coments Tonio.

marco

[TONE74]

Marco, I 've been playing for about the same time as you and it does start to become a pain to downtune specially if you play 3. What I do is down tune evenly lets say 3/4 or full turn or whatever ( less if the temp is steady ) that way when I play again its easy to get to the sweet spot you have to be carefull when you go from hot to cold like when you turn on the ac they can get really tight. Im sure you noticed that already. I'm pretty sure good skins will make an overall difference though. Not sure if what Im doing is right but I've been using this system and it has made it easier for me. Peace

[zaragenca]

Welcome,..ones you know the proper way to tune the instruments,there is not need to tune it all the way for practice,(unless you are playing with somebody else),so there is not reasons to keep the instrument tight all the time... The humedity could be taking care of with head,(but you have to be careful not to damage the skin..Dr. Zaragemca

[akdom]

Hi all

I always "untune" my drums when finished... even if I play the day after, I also make sure the skins are loose (by hitting the center with my fist).

When I play, my drums get off tune after a coule of hours. So if I do not have time to tune them again, I always have a rubber hammer.. I push the mics away from the drum and hit the rim all around.. It does the trick nice, fast and easy.

B

[109-1176549166]

Good tip! Thanks!

I imagine that you can use your fist, too--the soft bottom part of your fist, that is. This way it'll save you from having to carry another tool with you.

[109-1176549166]

Akdom,

I hope I didn't misunderstood what you were trying to say. I was thinking more of equalizing the tension of the head by using the soft part of your fist.

[Garvin]

Argh! I freakin' HATE the humidity where I'm living now. What I've done is put synthetic heads on my conga and tumba. My super tumba has a buffalo head and I put an LP hand select on my quinto. The synthetics are always in the same spot, and the super tumba I leave almost totally loose all the time. This drum is more of a practice drum for me, I hardly ever perform with four congas. The quinto is really the only drum I have to worry about. I only crank it up for gigs and long practice sessions (which are few and far between). I haven't really been bothered by the difference in sound since the 3 main drums are all the same model. The quinto definately has a different sound, but I find myself using it a lot more vocally anyway.

[akdom]

Hitting with your fist on the rim hurts your hands.... the rubber hammer gives you more strength and it is safe. I hit the steel rim where the hooks are.

And a rubber hammer is so handy that I do not care to carry it around along with my 3 drums, mics, mike stands, sheet musi book, and all the rest of the material for the band.. I have a bag in which I carry my wrench, claves, bells sticks, guiro etc...... so one thing more or less does not make any difference.


B

[bongo]

Yes weather and humidity change the tuning, but where I live it is more seasonal, I'll adjust the tuning say winter to summer and it tends to stay pretty well in tune for several months.

I am not an advocate of detuning a skin frequently, I actually wonder if it hurts a skin more than leaving the tension on.

With a lot of things it is the sudden transition not the steady state that exerts strain on the system. The roughest thing on a motor is starting it up and running cold. Electronics tend to fail most when cycling up and down, they last longer if you just let them run. That is why light bulbs so frequently fail when you first turn them on, the sudden expansion due to heat puts a strain on the filiment.

My experience with conga skins is they can last for twenty plus years with the tension on, and still sound great. I was told to detune at an early age, but was lazy and ignored the advice.

I know one guy who is always tuning and detuning and never seems satisfied with his heads for long, he is always changing skins and fooling with the sound.

Personally I like to tune to the sweet spot and leave it, make minor adjustments as the weather changes. I have several sets of congas, so I reference the sound against each other which helps tell if one has gone out of tune while in the weather.



Edited By bongo on 1184433307

[109-1176549166]

...I am not an advocate of detuning a skin frequently, I actually wonder if it hurts a skin more than leaving the tension on.

With a lot of things it is the sudden transition not the steady state that exerts strain on the system. The roughest thing on a motor is starting it up and running cold. Electronics tend to fail most when cycling up and down, they last longer if you just let them run. That is why light bulbs so frequently fail when you first turn them on, the sudden expansion due to heat puts a strain on the filiment.

My experience with conga skins is they can last for twenty plus years with the tension on, and still sound great...

I know one guy who is always tuning and detuning and never seems satisfied with his heads for long, he is always changing skins and fooling with the sound...

Hi Bongo,

With all due respect, IMO, the analogy between tuning/detuning conga to turning on/off an engine motor and an electronic device, such as a light bulb, is weak. A better analogy to me is that with a rubber band. If you stretch a typical rubber band and leave it stretched for an extended period of time, it'll most likely not return to its original size.

My very 1st congas are a pair of Toca Player Series fiberglass with water buffalo skins. I still have them--mostly just as practice congas and for casual drumming. The original owner, a co-bandmember in one of my bands, gave them to me when he got tired of them. Either not knowing much about congas or just being lazy, he said that he never detuned the skins.

Not surprisingly, when he left them with me the skins already sounded dead. So, the first thing I did was to completely loosen the skins them with the hope of put them back to "life".

I left them completely detuned for several days. When I tuned them back to my preferred pitches (even higher than my friend's preferred keys), they still sounded dead. So, I gave up on those old skins and replaced with Remo Fiberskyns. The difference was night and day!

Your experience with conga skins lasting for 20 plus years and still sounding great without detuning is something quite novel to me. My own personal experience tells me that it's a good idea to detune skins just 2 to 3 half turns down per tuning rod). At least, for me, it's better to be safe than sorry, especially with the more expensive animal skins (not water buffalo) on my Islas.

Your anecdote of the guy you know, who always tuned and detuned his skins, was always changing them, never seemed satisfied with them for long and was always fooling with the sound, is quite amusing. However, IMO, his changing the skins had much more to do with his own idiosyncracy :;): rather than his perceived disadvantage(s) of regularly detuning them.

Just sharing,



Edited By mjtuazon on 1184449030

[bongo]

mjtuazon

Thank you for your thoughts, you may be right, I really don't know the answer but just speculate. Some things I know from experience though, so here are more details.

One of my Gon Bop tumbas is 30 years old and has the original head on it (which I have kept tight and almost never detuned) and it sounds as good or better as my newer GP and SOS tumbas. Granted the tumba is not tuned so tight.

Now the quinto matched with that drum lost its skin at about 26 years, not from losing its sound, but because my hands had worn a hole through it along the bearing edge on one side. I made the mistake of always playing on the same spot, the other sides of the skin were still good. This quinto I absolutely loved the sound, and once again it was almost alway left cranked tight.

Comparing a conga skin to a rubberband may be a good analogy. I know different materials have different degrees of resistance to failure under repeated stress. A spring made out of steel can be repeatedly flexed almost endlessly without breaking, but this is not so for aluminum or copper, they fatique and eventually fail. Where the conga skin falls into all this is hard to say, but it is fun to spectulate until someone put it to an scientific test.
best regards,
bongo



Edited By bongo on 1184522159

[109-1176549166]

Bongo,

No problem! Thanks for your additional information. More often than not, our knowledge is enriched by everyone's input.



Edited By mjtuazon on 1184559677

[ozrivera]

Now the quinto matched with that drum lost its skin at about 26 years, not from losing its sound, but because my hands had worn a hole through it along the bearing edge on one side. I made the mistake of always playing on the same spot, the other sides of the skin were still good.

Saludos Hermanos

Bongo

Man, you must have some ruff, and tuff hands. or that may have just been an inferior head leather. i have never heard of anyone wearing a whole through the skin from just playing. i have drums ive had for 10 years with the same head and played on the same spot every single time and the head has absolutly no wear. not saying its not possible. i just never heard of that happening to anyone before.

I live in the coastal area of south texas, and humidity during the summer is, average 100-105% and the summers here are from March to October. i have found out that if youre playing outside you have to uptune your drums about half turn every 2 hrs. now, thats not a real big problem i can live with that. the problem is that your skins get stretched, if you have quality skins you know they are not cheap anymore. you used to be able to get quality unmounted skins for about $30. but now they start at $50. up to $80. + . i havent purchased any synthetic heads just yet, just becasue i love the traditional sound of hide heads but, that is going to change in the near future. it will save time and money in the long run.

God bless

Oz