Tension Watch

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Andy once stated that he uses the Tama Tension Watch to tune drumkits. Anyone else uses this ? Andy and those who have it, is it really worth the buy ? (yeah, I'm tired of musicians unable to tune their instruments, haha ).

 

[Liam Thompson]

I've never used one, but saw my drummer tuning his kit with his and he swears by it. Says it saves lots of time getting you very close to were you need to be, just have to fine tune the lugs opposite to opposite to get the tuning spot on around the head afterwards.

 

[Exsanguis]

I'll use the Tension Watch to get a decent tone, then just use my ears to get it to its optimal tone, which usually isn't that far off from where the TW put it, just a little different.

 

[Forbiddenevil]

Our drummer use it too and now his drumkit sounds a lot better than before. Also with other bands I record. It really saves a lot of time, but use your ears, too.

 

[Lopes]

I was tired of both of the drummers I work with having half-assed tuned kits, so I bought one myself and it is well worth the money. If you don't have the money you could also build your own for like twenty bucks. I saw a website on how to build one, but I don't remember what it was, so just google it, it looks like a pretty simple build.

 

[Andy Sneap]

yes definately worth it

 

[_RiseInside_]

i have a drum dial. yes, it´s worth the money

 

[kaomao]

Well we used Tension watch on our pearl drumkit, but with that damn thing we couldn't fine tuning all skins.
I mean ears are really better, my bro (the drummer) can get a good tuning with just his ears, it's not that difficult to obtain a killer drumkit by ears, ok tension watch is useful but ears are even better to me, it's faster.
Maybe there are better tension watch, tama's one didn't like that much

Maurizio

edit: Nice avatar Brett, is it from a commercial, right?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

edit: Nice avatar Brett, is it from a commercial, right?

I don't know, I just have this hilarious animated gif of a hamster doing kung-fu that Stillborn sent me, but can't use it as an avatar since it's too big in size, so I just chose one frame out of it. I just love it !

 

[elmuchoescadawg]

I don't know, I just have this hilarious animated gif of a hamster doing kung-fu that Stillborn sent me, but can't use it as an avatar since it's too big in size, so I just chose one frame out of it. I just love it !

So this isnt the real you then?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

So this isnt the real you then?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

I've met a lot of drummers thay 'say' they can tune a kit, but I've only encountered two that can actually do it. A tension watch is a great tool for an engineer. It'll take practice to get the hang of it, but the end result will be well worth it. Highly recommended!

-0z-

 

[Andy Sneap]

it'll get you in the ball park Don't bother with one of those tension keys, the ones that stop turning at a set tension, they're useless.

 

[Benny H]

I'm in 'I have no drumkit- hell!' limbo at the moment. But my kit for a long time was a 2000 Pearl Export, never used a tension key but I know it would be useless because there's no way the hardware is all perfectly machined and offering the same resistance, which it must be to translate the head tension to the key.

I'd assume(and hope) that'd be different with pro level kits, but still, stupid idea IMO.

 

[dasbuchi]

can anybody post some standart values?
my drummer owns a tension watch but his kit sounds kinda strange

 

[Jaff]

Bringing this old one up. Yes, only if Andy could tell us some Tension watch values of tom and snare tunings he usually likes to have, in order to get the best sounds when recording music like Nevermore or Killswitch Engaged? Is there a certain way how he wants the toms and snares to be tuned? Would be interesting to know some Tension watch values between the batter and resonant heads he has used when recording these bands like Nevermore or Killswitch Engaged, for example.

Of course would be nice to hear also others' experiences on the favourite Tension Watch tuning values for recording different kind of music...

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Depends on many factors like size of the toms, the skins you use etc. I usually go for the values given as examples in the Tension Watch manual, then fine tune by ear if I don't like what I get or if two toms are too close to each other notewise.

 

[MKS]

I love my drum dial. I didn't have much luck with my tension watch and sold it. In retrospect, I think it was because the drums I was trying to tune sucked ass.

I set up my mapex saturns:

8" 75 Top & Bottom
10" 75 Top & Bottom
12" 75 Top & Bottom
14" 75 Top & Bottom
16" 75 Top & Bottom
14" Snare 95 Top 90 Bottom
22" Kick Finger Tight

 

[Barth]

Yeah, I use it for a few years now! Great tool for engineers. I tune a bit higher then recommended. Lots of drummers tune to low and use way to large toms!

 

[musickey]

I own a Drum Dial and it has helped me out a great deal. just mess around with differant values and it will take alot of guessing work out of tuning