hi bongo boy,
the distortion of the shell is possible, this is basicly because youre dealing with a natural material (unless your drums are plastic). the constant tension formed by the head pulling the stave upward might deform the drum if the tension is not distributed evenly aroud and along the drum the wood will move and the glue holding the staves will weaken. and the fact that wood has natural tensions in it, whatever the producers of drums try, also due to the changes of humidity and temperature, all this will effect the drums natural tensions and it will under time distort. though this is thought of when the drums are made, and why the wood is kiln dried and laminated from about 3 staves and of course the stave thikness effects the stability of wood and then coated with the best materials made, so that the weaher cannot get to wood. and the manufacturors think about these things... alot!
but you cant really tune a drum so unevenly that it distorts, but if you leave it like that for a while it might.
try!
personally i have the problem of not eating meat etc... and making drums, but when it comes to drums i'm a traditionalist, when i make drums and have to handle freshly killed cattle and other animal skins :p , not fun for a vegetarian, but i'm used to it. but as for now i would not consider using synthetic, because it doesnt have the same real sound of a drum,(exept on my Arabic Tabla, because thats all that is available) its kind of like playing a plastic conga, it just doesnt attract me in any way nor does it sound right for me,
but hey theres nothing wrong with it.
timo
Edited By timo on Feb. 07 2002 at 15:58