I learned that it is better to hit your drums with a sledge hammer than with a pick ax. Ha ha. Seriously, I have never heard of this method, but, I don't dent my heads. Great video.
Many years ago, in the late 70s, I picked up a drum set in Indianapolis from a guy who used to be a big band drummer. It was older and I was really interested to see if I could find someone who would recover the drums. I found in the Yellow Pages and add that said Ray's drum service. Long story short this man was the service manager at the Leedy drum company that was there in Indianapolis many years ago. When the drum Factory shut down, he lived about a block from its location. He started to run a drum repair shop out of a 12 x 12 shed in his backyard. I took my slingerland kit to him and he recovered it, recut the bearing edges oh, and he took the old coated heads that I had on it and totally refurbish them. They were like brand-new. I didn't have a lot of dents in them but there were a few but you could not find them at all. And the sound have my drums were phenomenal! A lot of people try to recoat drum heads but it just doesn't work. I don't know what Ray did to my head's, and not only did they sound great, the coating lasted a very long time. Thank you so much for your program. I'm glad I subscribed.
A heat gun also works, but you have to be just as careful. Guess how I know this. It’s a good tip for a broke drummer when they aren’t recording. It does help bring a vibrance to the drumhead, but at a cost. IT DOES CHANGE THE TUNING CHARACTERISTICS. When using the heat gun method, it’s best to heat the entire head. This helps with tuning issues encountered afterward. In addition, there are sticks out there that have a larger round tips. Regal Tip Quantum series, in both nylon and wood. Easton produces a large ball tip (of about the same size) for their Ahead drumsticks. I’ve rarely put a single dent on a head beyond my first year behind my kit. The steeper attack angles don’t have a good feel, nor do they have the rebound needed for my preferred genres. I’ve made tom batter heads last years this way (2-ply, which has additional steps and is a pain). Why? Am I cheap? No. Was I broke? YES!
Again, very good video about important drummers´topics and issues! With mixed results, I managed to improve a head´s condition by placing it on the ground, facing down, leaving some packs of milk over it for many hours. But that was more for a beat up head, not especially dented.
After messin with drums for like 20 years I finally have my toms and bass dialed in on this set sounding good It's always my snare---- I can never get it to sound what I think is proper.
My two cents: I tried the direct flame, the cigarette heat, the ironing, the hair dryer and the heat gun, and my advice is: bake them; especially the double ply ones: set an oven to 100/12°C, slightly crank the head to a shell (preferably metal one) and bake it for 2 to 3 minutes: the result is stunning.: the tension is even on any point of the head. my "go to" shells are chromed remo rototoms, but the best (for snare drums) is to use a standard fepos snare shell (non warped) (the Rotos are a tad undersized)
Clevelanddrummer1 Very interesting video. I know you said that this method probably wouldn’t be effective at making a head sound better that simply needed replacing, but this video inspired me to take a hair dryer to my snare head and it totally worked. It didn’t have any dents to get out, it was just old. It wasn’t very far gone either, but it definitely had a slight depression in the center that you could see when removed it from the drum. The head sounded dead when tapping it (off of the drum). Anyway, thanks for the inspiration! The head I use is hard to find. It’s a smooth white COATED Ambassador
Great video as always! What about a video on how to record drums? I'm talking about setting input volumes, how to correctly balance the volume of the thousand mics on the kit and so on.. Nobody talks about this aspect (which is the starting point for any mix/drum cover) and is veeery hard to find infos about!
Do dents itself present a problem in terms of structural integrity? Cody, do you or someone you know have experience with dents causing tears in the head, since I've never had something like that happen. Also I'm confused from the video. Did taking a match to the drumhead also lower it's pitch? Because I was also thinking if you know or have you tried to heat a drumhead up with a heat gun or hair dryer (maybe all the way around?) or if you even advise something like thise to achieve a lower pitch to the head? Do you think it would still be structually sound? What about a thicker single ply or even 2 ply head? Thanks man!
Hey. Do you think you can cover dampening cymbals in a video? All I know is putting tape, but do you know of other ways to decrease decay (similar to how you covered dampening Toms with cymbal felts)?
Use a heat gun instead. Much faster and you don't burn through the drum head. I used it in the studio a month ago, where my snare head kept on denting due to some Tight Screws suddenly not being tight anymore after 10 years of use and no time to buy new ones. Worked like a charm.
Heat guns apply heat across a larger surface area, which may do even more harm. Again, while this may LOOK llike it's fixing the issue, it's really just addressing a symptom and potentially introducing a greater problem. Best bet? New drumhead and take care of the cause of the dents.
Have you considered doing video on mic techniques? i wonder what the best way to get a sound with only 1 mic is. Ecellent videos, you guys bring a lot to the drumming world!
Plastic has a memory. Even if you can pull out the dents with a hair dryer the head is done. Heads are absolutely essential for a good sound as is the bearing edge and the mount. The shell delivers a mere 2-3 %. Go to the German Institute for physics in Brunswick. Dr. Bork has an archive of extremely useful research by the institute. The data should be eye opening for every drummer and drumbuilder. Sonor used them. Guess why?
I took head off, turned it over and burned the bumps down. Either way the head is never going to be what it was and even though the tuning will be way off, it can still put a slight amount of extra tension on a head than it would have had, just not evenly. Cutting the collar off the head and another hole about an inch or two in leaves you a nice 'zero ring'.
I never saw doing that with fire and it doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I've seen doing it with a heat gun though (or a hair dryer, wich ain't the same thing, but could do the job), and it seems much safer. I never tried anyway. If the head is just slightly dented, it's probably still acceptable (unless you're getting into a studio, maybe, where you probably want a new one), so it isn't worth. And if it's heavily dented and you can't make it sound decently... well, it isn't worth either, just replace it.
of course it works, especially the heat gun, but the best trick I experienced is to set the head on a steel shell, like a timbale, or a wasted cheap snare drum, (my go-to is remo chromed roto-toms). set the oven to 100/120¨c, and bake the head during a short amount of time (2/3 mn): the result is perfect, especially for double heads: when you customise these with the heat gun they don't "shrink" equally and the result is haphazardous, but after baking they sound superb. (I am 72, ex professional drummer, drums collector (120 kits), have tried this trick multiple times, and believe me, it works.).
Just hit correctly instead. I sometime bash VERY hard (think Dave Grohl) and yet I dont have any dents. And I have seen drummers playing medium-hard and getting dents all over the place.
I have held a kick drum head over a pot of boiling water to remove the dent from the beater. Never tried the flame. Not sure that it made a difference and I haven't done it in about 20 years.
That's a particularly interest idea though I would imagine this stakes quite a bit of time. Definitely less risk of burning a hole in the drumhead but still melting the material enough that you may be introducing a greater weak spot at the contact point.
@@SoundsLikeADrum it works pretty quickly. I got the idea from Modern Drummer in the ‘80s. My reso head of choice at the time was the inner skin of a Pinstripe which is essentially a Diplomat. I have never found 22” Diplomats and I couldn’t bring myself to cut up a brand new Pinstripe. So once I broke the outer skin I would strip it off and use the boiling water trick to smooth out the skin. Then I would paint the inside black with paint made for Lexan RC bodies because it was the only thing that wouldn’t flake off.
Round tipped sticks, extreme tom angles, lower tunings combined with heavier hitting, and thinner drumheads will all put you at a greater risk of denting, for sure. I’d say you’re more likely to dent with round tipped stocks than with the back end of a stick due to the lack of surface area (part of the pickaxe vs. sledgehammer analogy).
@@SoundsLikeADrum I use Vater Fusion sticks, which have round tips, but I never have dents. I am not a gentle player. I have never understood how folks dent their heads.
@@SoundsLikeADrum Not in my experience. I never dent heads using sticks in the correct fashion. Back in the seventies gigging without microphones I would ocassionally use the butt end of my sticks to compete with the back line roar. That's the only time I've ever dented heads.
@John Bertasius- Not sure what to tell you. Spent years testing this stuff when I was developing both drumhead products and drumstick products for two major brands. There are a multitude of variables involved, of course, and even the design of the back end of the stick could have had a significant impact (no pun intended) on how much damage they could due. As they say, different strokes for different folks. 😉 Cheers! -Ben
We've tried and you'd need a VERY high-powered hair dryer or be willing to try and heat for a much longer period of time. The risk is still there that you'll do more harm than good.
Gotta have a VERY high powered blow drier and, even then, the heat isn't as concentrated. This can be good and bad, as you'll impact a larger area. In the end, we don't recommend doing this in performance scenarios.
Not worth it,,,,, I wouldn’t even try it,,,,, if you have the loot stock up on heads,,,, get 2 or 3 packs, they will last you a long time,,, especially the uv2s
Not necessarily, though we had to try pretty hard to dent these up. One can have great technique but have their drums angled too much or being using the wrong heads, etc. (all of which is detailed in the episode).
The Dents usually happen to me is When I let Others Play My Kit.
Ditto on that
Then dont
I learned that it is better to hit your drums with a sledge hammer than with a pick ax. Ha ha. Seriously, I have never heard of this method, but, I don't dent my heads. Great video.
Have you guys thought about doing stuff on tune bots and drum dials and the like? Thanks for all you do for the drum community!
We've thought about how we would address this in an episode and will likely get into it in the coming year. Thanks for the kind words!
I literally hardly sent heads ever but if I let my friend Andrew play it’s got like 10 in the rack toms and I already hit pretty darn hard by myself
Id recommend using a heat gun if you have one that way you can see what your doing if you really want to do this
Many years ago, in the late 70s, I picked up a drum set in Indianapolis from a guy who used to be a big band drummer. It was older and I was really interested to see if I could find someone who would recover the drums. I found in the Yellow Pages and add that said Ray's drum service. Long story short this man was the service manager at the Leedy drum company that was there in Indianapolis many years ago. When the drum Factory shut down, he lived about a block from its location. He started to run a drum repair shop out of a 12 x 12 shed in his backyard. I took my slingerland kit to him and he recovered it, recut the bearing edges oh, and he took the old coated heads that I had on it and totally refurbish them. They were like brand-new. I didn't have a lot of dents in them but there were a few but you could not find them at all. And the sound have my drums were phenomenal! A lot of people try to recoat drum heads but it just doesn't work. I don't know what Ray did to my head's, and not only did they sound great, the coating lasted a very long time. Thank you so much for your program. I'm glad I subscribed.
A heat gun also works, but you have to be just as careful. Guess how I know this. It’s a good tip for a broke drummer when they aren’t recording. It does help bring a vibrance to the drumhead, but at a cost. IT DOES CHANGE THE TUNING CHARACTERISTICS. When using the heat gun method, it’s best to heat the entire head. This helps with tuning issues encountered afterward.
In addition, there are sticks out there that have a larger round tips. Regal Tip Quantum series, in both nylon and wood. Easton produces a large ball tip (of about the same size) for their Ahead drumsticks. I’ve rarely put a single dent on a head beyond my first year behind my kit. The steeper attack angles don’t have a good feel, nor do they have the rebound needed for my preferred genres.
I’ve made tom batter heads last years this way (2-ply, which has additional steps and is a pain). Why? Am I cheap? No. Was I broke? YES!
Again, very good video about important drummers´topics and issues! With mixed results, I managed to improve a head´s condition by placing it on the ground, facing down, leaving some packs of milk over it for many hours. But that was more for a beat up head, not especially dented.
After messin with drums for like 20 years I finally have my toms and bass dialed in on this set sounding good It's always my snare---- I can never get it to sound what I think is proper.
My two cents: I tried the direct flame, the cigarette heat, the ironing, the hair dryer and the heat gun, and my advice is: bake them; especially the double ply ones: set an oven to 100/12°C, slightly crank the head to a shell (preferably metal one) and bake it for 2 to 3 minutes: the result is stunning.: the tension is even on any point of the head. my "go to" shells are chromed remo rototoms, but the best (for snare drums) is to use a standard fepos snare shell (non warped) (the Rotos are a tad undersized)
Clevelanddrummer1
Very interesting video. I know you said that this method probably wouldn’t be effective at making a head sound better that simply needed replacing, but this video inspired me to take a hair dryer to my snare head and it totally worked. It didn’t have any dents to get out, it was just old. It wasn’t very far gone either, but it definitely had a slight depression in the center that you could see when removed it from the drum. The head sounded dead when tapping it (off of the drum). Anyway, thanks for the inspiration! The head I use is hard to find. It’s a smooth white COATED Ambassador
I have no idea about it! Very cool and wild at the same time! haha
Brilliant! I remember years ago using a lit cigarette on the snare side head that ripped due to crappy broken snare wires and it lasted months!
To be clear- we're not saying that this has ANY benefit other than cosmetic and it may actually harm the head more than just leaving the dent.
Cody, I use a hair dryer and a heat gun. Usually when I’m selling a used kit and I need to make the dented heads look better.
Great video as always!
What about a video on how to record drums? I'm talking about setting input volumes, how to correctly balance the volume of the thousand mics on the kit and so on.. Nobody talks about this aspect (which is the starting point for any mix/drum cover) and is veeery hard to find infos about!
Do dents itself present a problem in terms of structural integrity? Cody, do you or someone you know have experience with dents causing tears in the head, since I've never had something like that happen. Also I'm confused from the video. Did taking a match to the drumhead also lower it's pitch? Because I was also thinking if you know or have you tried to heat a drumhead up with a heat gun or hair dryer (maybe all the way around?) or if you even advise something like thise to achieve a lower pitch to the head? Do you think it would still be structually sound? What about a thicker single ply or even 2 ply head? Thanks man!
I worked a Hanson show once, I was lucky enough to grab a free Hi-Energy snare head... I used it for metal.
Hey. Do you think you can cover dampening cymbals in a video? All I know is putting tape, but do you know of other ways to decrease decay (similar to how you covered dampening Toms with cymbal felts)?
That’s going to be coming up in an episode of our Cymbal series on Patreon.
Have you guys done a video about painted interior shells vs natural and how that might affect sound? Thanks for your response!
Not yet, I’m hoping to at some point but we need otherwise identical drums to make it a valid comparison and that’s a tall order :) -Cody
@@SoundsLikeADrum Guess it's time to up out Patreon contribution. :-)
I have a buddy that swears by using a hair dryer to get dents out.
He repurposes the heads to put on beginner kits for kids.
Use a heat gun instead. Much faster and you don't burn through the drum head. I used it in the studio a month ago, where my snare head kept on denting due to some Tight Screws suddenly not being tight anymore after 10 years of use and no time to buy new ones. Worked like a charm.
Heat guns apply heat across a larger surface area, which may do even more harm. Again, while this may LOOK llike it's fixing the issue, it's really just addressing a symptom and potentially introducing a greater problem. Best bet? New drumhead and take care of the cause of the dents.
I don't dare try this on an Evan's Hydraulic lol
I was going to ask that because that's what I use mostly,don't really have a problem with dents though
Have you considered doing video on mic techniques? i wonder what the best way to get a sound with only 1 mic is. Ecellent videos, you guys bring a lot to the drumming world!
We actually did that just over a week ago: sladl.ink/AKGMicSetups
Now I see that drumhead is getting out of tune or make it even more worst sounds if I hitting harder. Thanks, Mr. Cody!
LOL! I saw some old Jazz guys doing this with a cigarette years ago!
Tbh I liked the sound with the dents lolol
I love watching your videos
Plastic has a memory. Even if you can pull out the dents with a hair dryer the head is done. Heads are absolutely essential for a good sound as is the bearing edge and the mount. The shell delivers a mere 2-3 %. Go to the German Institute for physics in Brunswick. Dr. Bork has an archive of extremely useful research by the institute. The data should be eye opening for every drummer and drumbuilder. Sonor used them. Guess why?
I took head off, turned it over and burned the bumps down. Either way the head is never going to be what it was and even though the tuning will be way off, it can still put a slight amount of extra tension on a head than it would have had, just not evenly.
Cutting the collar off the head and another hole about an inch or two in leaves you a nice 'zero ring'.
I never saw doing that with fire and it doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I've seen doing it with a heat gun though (or a hair dryer, wich ain't the same thing, but could do the job), and it seems much safer.
I never tried anyway. If the head is just slightly dented, it's probably still acceptable (unless you're getting into a studio, maybe, where you probably want a new one), so it isn't worth. And if it's heavily dented and you can't make it sound decently... well, it isn't worth either, just replace it.
Question can you use a hair dryer or heat gun.?
of course it works, especially the heat gun, but the best trick I experienced is to set the head on a steel shell, like a timbale, or a wasted cheap snare drum, (my go-to is remo chromed roto-toms). set the oven to 100/120¨c, and bake the head during a short amount of time (2/3 mn): the result is perfect, especially for double heads: when you customise these with the heat gun they don't "shrink" equally and the result is haphazardous, but after baking they sound superb. (I am 72, ex professional drummer, drums collector (120 kits), have tried this trick multiple times, and believe me, it works.).
Just hit correctly instead. I sometime bash VERY hard (think Dave Grohl) and yet I dont have any dents.
And I have seen drummers playing medium-hard and getting dents all over the place.
I have held a kick drum head over a pot of boiling water to remove the dent from the beater. Never tried the flame. Not sure that it made a difference and I haven't done it in about 20 years.
That's a particularly interest idea though I would imagine this stakes quite a bit of time. Definitely less risk of burning a hole in the drumhead but still melting the material enough that you may be introducing a greater weak spot at the contact point.
@@SoundsLikeADrum it works pretty quickly. I got the idea from Modern Drummer in the ‘80s. My reso head of choice at the time was the inner skin of a Pinstripe which is essentially a Diplomat. I have never found 22” Diplomats and I couldn’t bring myself to cut up a brand new Pinstripe. So once I broke the outer skin I would strip it off and use the boiling water trick to smooth out the skin. Then I would paint the inside black with paint made for Lexan RC bodies because it was the only thing that wouldn’t flake off.
Surely the easiest way to dent heads is when reversing the stick to get extra power and volume.
Round tipped sticks, extreme tom angles, lower tunings combined with heavier hitting, and thinner drumheads will all put you at a greater risk of denting, for sure. I’d say you’re more likely to dent with round tipped stocks than with the back end of a stick due to the lack of surface area (part of the pickaxe vs. sledgehammer analogy).
@@SoundsLikeADrum I use Vater Fusion sticks, which have round tips, but I never have dents. I am not a gentle player. I have never understood how folks dent their heads.
@@SoundsLikeADrum Not in my experience. I never dent heads using sticks in the correct fashion. Back in the seventies gigging without microphones I would ocassionally use the butt end of my sticks to compete with the back line roar. That's the only time I've ever dented heads.
@John Bertasius- Not sure what to tell you. Spent years testing this stuff when I was developing both drumhead products and drumstick products for two major brands. There are a multitude of variables involved, of course, and even the design of the back end of the stick could have had a significant impact (no pun intended) on how much damage they could due. As they say, different strokes for different folks. 😉 Cheers! -Ben
@Obi Juan- Typically a combination of the things we referenced in the episode.
what i do is put the drum over a stove and let the heat tighten the head,about 1 foot away from the flame
😬
couldnt you use a hairdryer?
We've tried and you'd need a VERY high-powered hair dryer or be willing to try and heat for a much longer period of time. The risk is still there that you'll do more harm than good.
This is the drum equivalent of boiling bass strings.
blowdrier will probably work better
Gotta have a VERY high powered blow drier and, even then, the heat isn't as concentrated. This can be good and bad, as you'll impact a larger area. In the end, we don't recommend doing this in performance scenarios.
5 seconds seems long...!..
Not worth it imo. drum heads aren't that expensive. It is a good quick fix but I would only do it for a one time playing.
Agreed- and it barely (if even at all) makes a difference in the sound but may out the drumhead at greater risk of failing.
@@SoundsLikeADrum
Correct. Well said
Not worth it,,,,, I wouldn’t even try it,,,,, if you have the loot stock up on heads,,,, get 2 or 3 packs, they will last you a long time,,, especially the uv2s
Generally speaking, I'd agree with you 100%. There's VERY little benefit to doing this.
Your technique needs repair not the head
Not necessarily, though we had to try pretty hard to dent these up. One can have great technique but have their drums angled too much or being using the wrong heads, etc. (all of which is detailed in the episode).