DrumTuna ‘Hero’ - £49.95 - www.drumtuna.com

A handy analogue gauge to give your tuning skills a tune-up...

Drum tuning is, in my opinion, a bit of an art. Every drummer has their own way of tuning and it takes time and practice. There’s no right or wrong as such (not like with, say, guitar tuning), but there are some fundamentals that apply. One of those is that for a drum head to be ‘in tune with itself’ you need even tension at each tension rod. Usually you would check this by listening to the pitch at each tension rod. But with a tuning gauge you can go a step beyond and check the tension using a precision instrument. That’s where DrumTuna come in. They offer a range of tuning gauges to help drummers to be as accurate as possible.

In detail

DrumTuna have a digital (the ‘Flip’) and an analogue (the ‘Hero’) gauge and we have the latter here. The ‘Hero’ has an easy-to-read dial display that gives a read-out when placed upon the drum head. The precision needle that lives inside the solid-aluminium housing is accurate to 0.01mm (known as the gauge resolution), so fine-tuning with this DrumTuna model is a given. The dial bezel physically rotates so that you can calibrate it before using. A drum key is also included, with a handy stowage space on the back of the dial.  The supplied instructions give suggested tuning. The Tuna comes supplied in a handy, protective soft case as well so that you can protect it when you’re on your travels. The build quality and components used here are of great quality.

In Use

How better to test something than to use it in a ‘real-life’ situation. I had a call from a studio engineer friend who was in the studio with a band. They were having trouble getting a good sound from the kit and couldn’t get it in tune, so they asked for my help. Starting with the batter heads, I raised each head to the desired pitch and then checked the tension at each tension lug. Although to my ear each lug was at an even pitch  (I’m pleased to say I was in the ballpark) the DrumTuna gauge helped me to iron out any discrepancies. In tuning, just a small amount of tension at each rod makes a big difference. Only using the gauge could I be assured that I had a head that was totally evenly tensioned and in tune. The result was a drum that sounded great because it was truly at an even pitch, on both top and bottom heads.

Conclusion

Not all drummers are concerned with 100% accuracy in tuning, but they should be, particularly when in the studio, where your kit is effectively ‘under the microscope’. Believe me, the engineer will thank you for getting it right! The DrumTuna gauge allows you to be accurate. The suggested tensions within the manual will be a great help and will get you on your way to achieving a good drum sound, even if you’re learning to tune or honing your tuning skills. Considering that most of a drum’s sound comes from the head, and that to get the best from a head it needs to be evenly tensioned, this is a very worthwhile investment. The analogue ‘Hero’ model offers great value for money as well. I’ll be sticking mine in my kit bag for sure.