by rhythmrhyme » Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:58 pm
Hey Kaban,
Not sure if your last post was directed at me. When I referenced taking a cut off the edge of the skin I meant when it's soaking as a means of determining if the head has soaked through yet. The Al Dente reference is not to heads once they've dried, but to how the edge looks while they're soaking.
Also, when referencing "white" we're talking about white appearing around the bearing edge of the drum i.e. where you play it on the rim. In your pictures neither of your heads show stress marks on the bearing edge. The white marks on the bearing edge are an indication the head has been stressed too much while wet and being mounted i.e. pulled too tight. A bit of white is OK, as it comes out with oil and playing, but too much may be hard on the head.
I had a quinto once that was mounted too high and didn't seem to have had enough tension on it while being mounted (it was drooping a bit near the bearing edge). I put a wet towel on top of it for several hours and then tuned it way up - some board members are certainly going to cringe at this idea. However, it changed the playing dynamic of the head and ever since then it has sounded 100% better, likely because I was finally able to pull out the droop. In order to avoid droop check the drum every few hours while it's drying and keep the lugs under tension, just a bit beyond "hand tight". I usually mount the head a bit higher than I like to play on to give room for the adjustments.
RR
Last edited by
rhythmrhyme on Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana