How to Use a Digital DrumDial
When replacing a drumhead, be sure to seat the new head evenly on the drum. Replace the hoop and finger tighten the tuning lugs. This will ensure that a proper bearing edge fit can be achieved. If used drumheads are being tuned for the first time with a DrumDial®, these heads should be loosened up, finger tightened and slowly brought back up to tension using the tuner. Make sure the drum to be tuned is fairly level so that the tuner will not slide around on the head. Your digital DrumDial® is calibrated at the factory, but with daily use, the tuner may need to be re-calibrated.
To calibrate the digital DrumDial®, place it on a flat glass surface, press and hold the “CAL” button for three seconds; the unit will read “100” when calibrated. To prolong battery life, your DrumDial® will power down after 5 minutes and go into standby mode. Move the tension rod or press the on/off key to activate the DrumDial®.
There is no need to re-calibrate unless the unit is completely turned off. Press and hold the “on/off” key for 3 seconds to completely turn the DrumDial® off for extended storage. Re-check calibration as needed to insure accuracy.
Note:
Make sure that the tuning tip is finger tight. The top cap screw is not used for calibration and should be kept tight and never removed.
1. Positioning: Position the tuner so the display is easy to read. Place the tuning tip on the drumhead, always compressing it slowly, until the full weight of the tuner is on the drum. The DrumDial® base should be about ¾ of an inch from the edge of the drum directly in front of a tuning lug. This distance can be easily measured using the DrumDial® Edge Gage. Simply clip it onto the neck of the DrumDial® and position the tuner so the Edge Gage lightly touches the inside rim of the drum. At this point, remove your hand from the DrumDial® (don’t rest your hand on the drumhead as this may give an inaccurate reading).
2. Tuning: Continue picking up and moving the DrumDial® to each tuning point, tightening each tuning lug to achieve identical display readings. Do this until the drumhead is sufficiently tight and the head is properly seated.
3. Adjusting Sound: At this point, the drum should be in tune with itself. Now, if you want a different tone, slowly tighten or loosen each tuning lug to your desired tuning point, again matching all gage readings.
Notes:
Picking up the tuner and placing it down again in the same spot should give you an identical gage reading. However, used heads with indentations and scuffed areas around the edges will make the tuner have different readings if the tuning tip is placed directly on a scuffed surface or in a dent. This should not be a problem unless the drumhead is extremely worn. When loosening a tuning lug, be sure to pick the dial up and place it down again to relieve pressure on the head, this will assure a correct gage reading. This is not necessary when tightening a tuning lug.
Complete drum tuning for all drums: Ordinarily most drums will be tuned to about 75 for the top head and 74 for the bottom resonant head (snare drums tighter, top 85, bottom 82 and bass drums a little looser at 70 to 72). Because of the variety of drums on the market, experimentation with your particular set-up at different gage readings and tuning levels is recommended.
IMPORTANT: Due to the sensitive nature of the gage, when not in use, keep the DrumDial® in its case and keep tension off the tuning tip for prolonged periods of time as this may damage the tuner’s internal mechanism.
Change the battery when the low battery signal appears in the display. Re-calibrate the digital DrumDial® every time the battery is replaced. To replace the battery, use a small flat head jewelers screw driver to slide open the battery holder. Replace the battery in the correct +/- position and slide the battery holder back in place. The battery is a 3V lithium (CR2032).