Pre-Mounted Skins

[afrocubarico]

Hey guys,
I have two drums of which I had their skins replaced with mule skin. One of them, the quinto, the skin was a pre-mounted skin. The other drum the skin had to be soaked in water and tucked from scratch.

At times I have a difficult time tuning the quinto to get the right tone out of it. Some times it gives me somewhat of a ringing sound which drives me nuts. The other drum does not have this problem at all. Is it possible that the pre-mounted skin that was put on the quinto does not have that "glove like" fit? Thanks!

afrocubarico

[Tonio]

Hola afrocubarico,

what kind of drum is it? even some esoteric drums can ring if you tune it very high, especially quinto. Or it can be the thickness of skin.

T

[afrocubarico]

Hey T,
Hope all is well with you my brother. The drums are LP Classics. The skin is a thin mule skin with a really nice feel to it. I'll try to play around with the tuning some more, perhaps like you said, I'm probably tuning it a bit too high. I just thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that the skin was already pre-mounted and probably does not have that perfect fit as with a skin that's been soaked and tucked. Thanks dude!

afrocubarico

[vinnieL]

Try taking the skin off and filling it with about a 1/4 inch of water and leaving it there for a while you don't need to fully soak it so it's sloppy just enough so it gets slightly soft. Then remount the head and tighten just a little then let it dry. This should help seat the edge better since it was not seated to the bearing edge of your drum.

[afrocubarico]

vinnie,
That sounds like a great idea! How long should I have the skin filled with water? Thanks so much!

afrocubarico

[Tonio]

Hour or so? depends on how thick. You can feel it get softer.

T

[vinnieL]

Tonio got to it before me! Good luck with that skin.