1st wave showed. Still need a slew of things. Was an adventure putting this together, but got 'er done.
But another thing added to the list: "How to tune drums"
simple
for toms, start with the bottom head. turn the drum upside down so the top head is muted on carpet or a towel.
slack all the drum lugs. most tuning is going to be in a crisscross pattern like a car tire.
now finger tighten all lugs as a starting point.
then with a drum key, slowly turn each lug, maybe 1/4 turn and strike the head in the center with your finger or stick, just lightly. you want to turn the lugs until the "raspy" untuned sound is out, like paper fluttering in the wind. you can keep lightly hitting it while you turn the lugs.
once you get a solid note, just detune one lug at at time all the way, then slowly back up until the clear pitch returns. then move on to the next lug. this process gets you the lowest pitch the head and drum will produce. it's a great starting point.
some will tell you to overtighten things and push down on the drum head to "crack" or release the glue seals of the head. i haven't found strong evidence to do this anymore, especially on evans heads. remo pinstripes might still need it, as i believe they still make them the old way. but yamaha stock heads should be newer remo and not need it, at least at this stage.
ok so you have the drum upside down and at the lowest pitch it will go. for now, just turn each lug 1/4 turn to pitch up slightly.
now repeat the process on the top of the drum head. get the lowest pitch possible, then tune up slightly.
lift the drum off the floor and hit it. it should sound ok or even good.
from here, the top head is usually tuned for "feel" - how quickly the stick bounces off, or if it sinks in a bit. this may require some time for you to develop your preferences, but this should be an ok starting point. the bottom head is usually tuned for "pitch" though of course both heads affect this. think of it like the Master Volume in the amp block affecting both power amp distortion and Level. you may have to balance the two heads to get the pitch and feel you want.
repeat for the other drums. you should get a natural descending pitch from high to low toms. you can adjust the lower head (or top) to balance pitch - just a small turn on any lug should do it.
i wouldn't put too much weight on making sure all lugs are exactly the same tension, at least at this stage. honestly, many of us do the process i described, then pull a lug all the way loose for that classic pitch swoop on a tom.
just at any point of tuning, make sure you don't hear that "paper rasp" sound from a lug being too loose. usually the bottom head is the first culprit of this.
for the bass drum, honestly for now just pitch it as low as it can go like i explained above. from there, you'll again have to tension the beater side head for the action you want - to suck in the beater or to make it bounce. as a beginner, having it suck it might feel best as you won't deal with bouncing as you develop pedal technique. i think this is ok for starting out, but consider that in the future you may have to increase that tension as you start to play faster.
the snare can be challenging. the snare side head (bottom) is a much thinner head than anything else. don't over tension it, but you definitely want tension on it. you also definitely want to do the crisscross pattern when tensioning so you don't snap it from one lug being too far out. but just get it to maybe a 1/2 turn or more of tension from its lowest point. you can really crank these things up. but we're just going for a starting point.
for the snare wires itself, same sort of process: while they are engaged, turn the tension screw to release it till it's not touching anymore. (if you can. some snare throwoffs don't allow adjustment when engaged, but most do.) hit the snare as you turn it and you'll hear it get very loose then not touch at all. now start turning it back the other way until it's what you want to hear. you can overtension this, so try to find that balance.
when i started playing drums i decided to experiment and see exactly how high i could tune each head. the snare especially can handle cranking it. but then i realized that the LUGS or bolts can fail before the head does. so you can keep going, but not too far. you might just have to figure that out on your own too.
the top snare head really has a lot of range. personally i like high tuned snare tops, so start at the lowest pitch, and just tune it up uniformly until it sounds like what you want. hard to go wrong here, until you get to maximum cranking of course.
that should get you started i think. get to the lowest pitch of each head, tune up a bit as a starting point, then adjust from there. drums are easy in that they're not as fragile as guitar string tension or similar. i mean you hit them after all. just know that too low tension and you'll dent the heads easy, and too high (and that's really really high) can break the heads or the hardware. the middle ground is huge and it's hard to go too wrong.
there's drum tension dials, and holding the middle of the head lightly to provide tension to match pitch as you tune around the drum. but that's for later.
