Photo By KD Drums (kddrums.com)

You’ve changed the heads, you know it’s not your ear, and the lugs are fine – But the damn thing keeps going out of tune!  This might not actually be your fault.  If you’ve tried everything you can think of, it is possible that you might just have a defective drum (or drums) – meaning, the bearing edges might be bad.

So how can you tell if your bearing edges are bad – well, you could take them to a drum builder to be re-cut… but that could be expensive and a hassle if you’re not anywhere close to a builder.  The easier alternative is to try out RecordingHacks.com for a great way to test the bearing edges yourself (even if you don’t’ have a perfectly flat surface).

From The Article:

The general approach is to put the drum, with no heads, on a flat surface, then drop a flashlight or, preferably, a small (low-wattage) bare light bulb inside the shell. Kill the room lights, and look for light escaping from the bottom edge of the drum shell, where it meets the counter.

To Read The Full Article – Check Out The Recording Hacks Website