Hey i am new to this forum here. I got my superstar hyperdrive kit about 2-3 months ago. Since i got it my toms just do not sound right at all. My snare and bass drum sound awesome i wouldn't take that sound away for anything... but my toms sound like i am banging on a damn trash can. I tried 2 ply Remo pinstripe heads and the remo "O"s for the ring dampening... NOTHING WORKS... i went to a music store for them to tune it but it didn't do anything i said they don't sound right and they looked at me like i was crazy i guess they do not know much about drums... Anyway, how can i fix this problem... i play classic rock songs like Cream and Zeppelin, Hendrix, Skynyrd, bands that use a lot of toms. I started playing on a vintage Ludwig set and the toms are a nice crisp, solid, fast tone and when i got my tama's they just dont have that but when i hear people play on the toms from the videos on the tama website everything sound great. What can i do!!??

Try putting the Evans min-EMAD's on the bater and resonant heads.

I am confused however that you say they sound like a trashcan, but you did everything you could to dampen the sound. Wouldn't hitting a trashcan make a dead thud, similar to hitting an overly dampened drum head. What makes a drum sound great is proper tuning and letting the wood speak a little.

Also remember that what you hear behind the kit is not what everybody else hears. Let somebody else play the set and stand back a bit. You will be surprised how different it really sounds.

coated Remo Emps for Bonzo sound.
http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/johnbonhamocheltree.html

There are a couple of things you can try. First, switch to coated heads. I use Evans G2 Genera's on my Superstar (non FX, the full sized toms) and control rings on mine and they do not ring at all. You might also try putting some duct tape (I prefer black to the slivery style) on the resonant heads. Try tuning your heads a little lower as well, the tighter the heads, the greater the posibility the will "ring"

Keep in mind that these are Birch drums,and hyperdrive toms are shorted, therefore will create more of a ring since the sound has a shorter distance to travel between heads.

On my drumset i have regular toms, but i do use a double ply reso head, such as a Evans G2, and for the Batter head i have a coated head, i love my Evans EC2 coated...I also tune my batter head low, and the reso just slightly tighter.

Good luck, hope it helps.

im sure its the die cast hoops ., my old rockstars sounded a lot better

I am not sure what you are describing when you say trash can. Most of your drummers you mentioned played classic Ludwigs on single ply coated heads with a thin lower(because thats all we had to choose from.) Those drums were usually three thick plys of predominately maple. The tom configuration on your kit is not much different than what we used to call "speed" toms. I have played, tuned and own a bunch of them. The good news is if you can tune these, you can tune anything. A 22 x 20 bass drum is much easier to tune than a 26 x 14.

A birch shelled drum, with diecast rims like the one mentioned is all about resonance, reverberation and ATTACK. Their natural frequency is higher pitched or bright. Throwing pinstripes, hydraulics or sound "control" heads on it it sounds like you are trying to force the drum into sounding like something its not. I recommend going the other way with your head selection (like a G2.) Let them sing a bit then have your guitar buddy hit them while you stand on the other side of the garage. Then flatten your toms and listen... ...it makes a difference. Then throw in guitars and such and a controlled sound gets lost and depends on amplification. Once you mic your drums I am a firm believer that you begin to loose tone anyway. A bright sound finds its way through... Your better off where you are I think.

Whats odd is that I know Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell would have sounded killer on a modern birch kit. Their playing style was perfect for this type of drumset because they were jazz drummers. They attacked and released. Bonham probably sounded good with his vistalites because he was heavy handed attack most of the time (he used a lot of reverb and phase.) So it didn't really matter what John played because we never really heard what his drum set really sounded like.

Don't get frustrated. I'm still experimenting some thirty years now... could be worse, you could have chosen to play the guitar. So your already ahead of the curve.

RicoHorton....and you're responsing to the person who responded to a thread started in 2009.

I wouldn't be caught dead with Maxi Pads on my kit, back in the day or now and I am comfortable in my sexuality. I am married and have had to go to the store for my wife and buy her pads and tampons through the years with a little embarassment at the check-out but never on a drum. lol...Back in the late 60's and 70's, all the studio engineers wanted dead drums, no overtones, no resonance. It was all about choking the drum down so there was no reverberation after the initial strike of the stick. Go back and listen to some of your favorite recordings and you'll hear cardboard sounding, dead thuds from wallets being taped to snare heads(Yes, this was actually done a lot back in the day) and miles of Duct Tape spread aimlessly all over tom and bass drum heads. Thankfully, engineers tastes changed in what they wanted for drum sounds. Now it's all about resonance, letting the drum sing, etc.... I started drumming in the 70's so I remember very well taping up heads, adding remo muffle rings to my power toms to deaden the sound to a dull thud.

Thank heavens that it's all about letting the drum sing now. I love resonance and tone so much, I don't even put anything in my bass drum anymore. A felt strip is all that's necessary to let the drum sing without killing it. If I see anybody with tape on their drumheads now, I think what a waste of a perfectly good drum. Drum designers design shells to resonate as freely as possible for as long as possible and that's the way it should be.