Tuning Lug Annoyances

Ed. Note: This is the fourth entry into the "Canwood Drum Restoration" thread that I began writing this past April. For those who are interested in reading the first three entries, you can view them here, here and here.

An update to this project is long overdue, and my work is far from finished. But recall me saying that this would be a labor of love. It may take me a few more years to get the kit back to 100%, but it's the journey that most rewarding.

Of most importance, was getting the snare drum back into a condition where I could use it as a primary snare drum. It may be difficult to see from the pictures, but I measured the drum to be 4.5" deep by 14" diameter. I already had a Yamaha maple 4 x 14 drum in my arsenal, so I needed to find a a way to make this drum have a different character than the Yamaha.

The Canwood snare had been heavily used. A few of the tuning lugs were broken, the tuning hoops were rusting in areas, The snare throw-off was broken, and the snare wires were stretched. New snares and the throw-off were purchased in a local music store and fitted on the drum in a pinch, but some of the harder-to-find parts, such as the tuning lug swivel nuts wouldn't be found in my city.

Enter Drummaker.com. Searching through their vast inventory, I placed an order which included a pile of nylon lug washers, swivel nuts to refit every tuning lug on the snare, two "mighty-hoops" and a tube of machine thread grease, made by Loc-Tite. Now we are underway to do some serious restoration!

That's when I hit the first hurdle. It ended up that the swivel nuts I ordered did not fit my tuning lug casings (the ones I purchased were square; whereas mine were hexagon-shaped). That left me scouring eBay for the proper parts. I eventually found 2, and paid more in shipping than what I paid for the items -- go figure.

Once I had all the hardware off the snare drum, I again inspected the shell. The shell is quite round -- the drumheads spin freely on the drum, though there is a slight variance of about 1/16" in diameter. It's not severe, yet not perfect either. Now came the hard part: checking the trueness of the bearing edges. To do so, you need a perfectly flat surface. "One slab of marble, please."

This might have been the first time in my life that I wished I had a pool table in my house. My kitchen countertops are far from being perfectly flat. The closest thing I had was a mirror -- and I doubt a 16" X 24" mirror from Wal-Mart is perfectly flat.

But beggars can't be choosers, and a close approximation is better than none at all. So the mirror found a spot on the bedroom floor, the lights were turned off, the drum shell was placed on the mirror, and I shone a flashlight inside the shell.

Yup. Just what I had feared.

Over time, even the best-made drums can suffer from tortion. Poor tuning practices, transportation, changes in temperature and moisture can have an effect on the shape of the drum. Thus, the bearing edges are no longer true. The variation is very small -- 1/32" at the worst places, but in the world of drumming an untrue bearing edge can lead to nightmares. It is true that bearing edges can be re-cut, however the problem arises in finding a skilled craftsman whom you trust to perform such a delicate operation. One small mistake, and the drum is ruined. Alas, the bearing edges will have to wait. The snare was re-assembled using the new parts.

After a few gigs, I began to realize a mistake I had made during the first phase of restoration: Petroleum jelly.

AKA Vaseline. As it turns out, it is a fantastic lubricant. In fact, it's a little too good. There still needs to be a little bit of friction between the tuning lug and the swivel nut, for the drumhead to maintain pitch. What I found out, is that there was little to no friction at all, and my drums were detuning themselves at an alarming rate. It got so bad, that I was often tuning my drums twice a set (once every 5-6 songs). To compare, I was used to tuning my drums once per weekend.

So out came cleaning rags, and the Q-tips, and an afternoon was spent wiping each tuning lug free of vaseline. The Q-tips were run in and out of every swivel nut. I even tried placing a drop of the Loc-Tite machine thread grease on each lug. Then I found more problems.

A number of my tuning lugs were bent. They will undoubtedly need replacement. It appears another order to Drumbuilder.com will be placed in the near future. I reassembled the drums and gigged with them again.

Well the drums hold their pitch a little better, but they still detune more than they should. Maybe I'm just using a little too much grease. Wiping off any excess from the tuning lugs should allow them to behave they way they should.

From my standpoint, the upgrading of the drumset will continue in three phases. The first phase continues the hardware upgrade. This includes replacing bent tuning lugs, and installing nylon washers. All other tuning hoops should be inspected to see if they are flat. If not, they require replacement.

Phase two will include hiring a skilled craftsman to re-cut the bearing edges. This should eliminate most of the tuning issues I have with the drums.

Phase three is purely cosmetic; the drums are to be re-finished. A color is yet to be determined. This would also be the opportune time to replace the wooden hoops on the bass drum.