i'm constantly messing with the tunings on my drums.  last night it was the snares turn to be messed with.  i like it fat sounding with the snares loose, however they vibrate like crazy when i hit the toms. i tuned it lower  with the snare wires loose.  i started playing  with that setting  and  i gotta say it sounds great. not only has the buzzing stopped but the new tuning seems to blend very nicely with the rest of the set.  seems to have a deep, fat sound with just a dash of ring. i lak it. does anyone here use a drum dial to tune with?  does it work as advertised?

I am personally anti-drum dials.

I used to own the Tama Tension Watch.  I bought it because I simply did not know how to tune, and the ad seemed to promise that this thing would allow me to get my drums to be perfectly tuned without using my ears.

Well, it almost worked as advertised.  I was able to get the tension exactly the same by each lug, and I thought that my drums had never sounded better.  I was happy about that because I did not yet know how to tune by ear.  I just didn't know yet what to listen for.  So, this allowed me to continue being lazy and to continue saying "I'll never be able to learn how to tune by ear".

Later on down the road, I bought Bob Gatzen's "Drum Tuning: Sound and Design" video.  After watching that, I discovered that, on my drums, even though the tension was exactly the same by each lug according to the Tension Watch, the pitch was quite varied (by just watching the video I learned what to listen for).  So, I did my best to match the pitch, and the drum immediately sounded better.  And so then right after that, I gave my Tension Watch a funny look...

So, I began practicing my tuning by ear and I eventually sold my Tension Watch to a pawn shop.

And today, I can get my drums to sound much better tuning by ear than I ever could with that Tension Watch.  It also doesn't take me as long!  So, I enjoy it more, and I don't have to worry about breaking some silly tuning gadget.

As a result, I personally find drum dials to be absolutely useless and worthless compared to tuning by ear.  I mean, when I'm tuning, I'm tuning for a specific sound.  A drum dial isn't going to make that any easier for me.  If anything, it unnecessarily complicates it.  I remember sitting there for well over 15 minutes on one tom-tom trying to get the tension values the same.  And what's worse, the Tension Watch is a high-precision instrument, and the instructions said that to get an accurate reading, I had to gently and slowly lower it onto the drumhead.  And I found this to be true.  When I simply just set it on there, I could pick it up and set it back down and get a different reading.  But if I gently and slowly set it down, picked it up and did that again, I got the exact same reading no matter how many times I did it.

But yes, those drum dials basically work as advertised in that they measure the tension of the surface they're placed on, and my Tension Watch did that very well.  But after my experience, I now believe that if somebody doesn't tune by ear, then they might not be able to get their drums to sound their best.  But for somebody who simply cannot tune by ear yet, then a drum dial can be a way to get a BETTER sound than they could get if they tried to tune by ear (it can be a way to tune the drums while you're waiting to get better at ear-tuning).  But just like drumming, tuning takes practice.  And once again like drumming, the work is well worth it.

For me, there's nothing like playing a drum tuned by ear.

That's kinda funny that you mentioned that.  I was just about to make a new topic because I just had my tom-tom's bearing edges professionally done by a local drum shop (www.EllisDrumShop.com), and I gotta say:  it's so worth it, and I wish I had done it a long time ago.  Tuning by ear has gone from being a chore and a test of my patience to being kinda fun.  For the first time ever, I am actually sorta looking forward to putting new heads on.  I no longer have any fear of removing my heads and putting them back on and losing that perfect tuning I worked so hard for, and merely HOPING I get lucky.  Tuning is just much easier, and the drum sounds much better.  It's almost as if I bought a new set of toms!  But really, they're just sounding their best.  They even feel better too.  They're more sensitive and as a result, more dynamic.  The tuning range is even a little wider.

So, if you're gonna spend like $60 on a drum dial thing, you may as well spend the extra $20-40 more to get your bearing edges professionally cut (it cost me $25 for my 10", $30 for my 12", and $30 again for my 14").  I mean, wouldn't you rather spend that extra money to have drums that are suddenly easier to tune by ear and sound and feel better instead of getting a drum-dial and possibly still be frustrated?

Wow first Post! Hope I don't screw this up!

Been tuning by ear for years and have never used a dial. It just comes as second nature to me I guess - was taught by a couple of really good teachers early on in my drum playing. You know when a drum is right - you can hear it.

Can't stress enough the need for bearing edge's cut. Make the world of difference.

And BTW - I like my snare to CRACK! so I tighten that puppy up! But not in an obnoxious way. Once had a sound tech tell me I had the loudest snare he had ever heard and there was no need for a mike - this was in a very well established punk club here in Portland and the guy had done hundreds of different bands. I took that as a major compliment!

I was going to offer that exception to my "rule" about "no drum dials" where one could use it to record their perfect settings, but then I realized that not every drumhead is going to be exactly the same.  I mean, I suppose with absolutely perfect bearing edges, and a drumhead company who has perfect QC, then I would be comfortable using a drum dial in that manner.  But on the day when I had to put the drumheads back on after getting my drumshells back from Ellis, it took me about 5, maybe 10 minutes to tune my 14" up to the point where I moved on to the other drums.  It used to take 20+ minutes.  If I had to add a drum dial to the routine, I'd probably be back up to 15 to 20 minutes per drum.  So, I guess this is why I'm personally anti-drum dial.  I prefer the simplicity and quickness that tuning by ear gives me.  In fact, when I discovered that there was sawdust in my 14" before I set the other shells up, I spent about 15 total minutes between removing the heads, cleaning, re-installing, and tuning back up.  A task like that before having the bearing edges redone would've taken me over a half an hour, and it would've seriously tested my patience.

So, I can see now that this is essentially like comparing apples and oranges.

See, it's kinda like I was saying:  I think my experience with the Tension Watch may have been due to my imperfect bearing edges.  I have this feeling that I'd have different results now.