Ahead Dial Precision, Screw Drum Tuner (ADD)

Ok, After seeing several videos and reading reviews all over the spectrum, I decided to give my 2 cents about the drum dial. First of all, it does work, it does make your drums sound cleaner and more in tune. I started by checking the drum dial on my kit before I replaced my drumheads and was surprised how close I was on the pressure for each lug. Even a few slight differences in setting can make some strange overtones and uneven tones. After removing heads and replacing them. I tuned them with the drum dial. I have to admit, I was a little confused at first, but after following the directions and "SLOWLY" changing the pressure per lug, I found it sounded much more even and better. Especially if you record your drums. I found that the settings on the insert card were not my favorite tones for my kit, but you make it your own. I found the pressure I like and the rest is history. If you adjust the lugs a few pressure points at a time and make your way around the drum several times it sounds great. If you are impatient and want a quick fix, maybe this is not for you. If you take your time and "dial" in the sound you like, the drums will defiantly give you a cleaner and more even tone. Since I first used it a few times, it gets quicker to retune and make small adjustments. I totally recommend this for anyone that wants to clean up your sound. It defiantly is not a magic wand for tuning your drums. If your heads are old or not seated correctly, you may not see as much of a difference as new heads and seating you heads properly. Drum tuning is personal preference. If it sounds good to you, you are there. Hope this helps.

This thing works well. Great for initial set up and company has good online instructions if needed

I started playing drums at a late age it seems. I was 7 years old in 1963 when I got my first drum set for Christmas. It was called the "Liverpool Compact Drum set". With 5 boys in the family, we weren't wealthy and I couldn't get a 'real kit', but it had a free-standing snare, (instead of the beginner, kid-drum sets where all the drums were welded to the bass drum shell).It didn't sound bad and with the Mylar heads and I could actually tension and tune them. BTW, if anyone has one of those Liverpool Compacts stuffed away in their grandfathers attic and it's in good condition, it's probably worth every bit of $10K (depending on condition).Anyway, I'm 63 now and I bought my very first e-kit a few weeks ago. I hadn't had a drum set, nor picked up a pair of sticks in at least 12 or 14 years. I can say that the e-kits have come a long way, (I bought the Alesis Surge Mesh), but they'll still never replace the acoustic kits in a live-band setting.The Mesh heads definitely give a very realistic and comparable feel to an acoustic head but I could feel very slight differences in my stick response depending on where I hit the e-kit mesh heads. After some searches for a couple of days I decided that I should treat the mesh heads the same way I would treat my acoustic kit's Mylar heads.I bought the Drumdial Precision Drum Tuner because I was looking for something to measure the head tension itself, not the sound resulting from the head tension like you may go by on an acoustic kit.The sound of the e-kit I have wouldn't change when I tightened or loosened the lugs but the response of my sticks would. The Drumdial Tuner is very easy to use and very accurate.It reliably measures the tension in the head of any drum you use it on and it includes a chart that gives you a general rule-of-thumb regarding the tension setting of each drum head. I knew the Mesh heads on the e-kit weren't tight enough but I didn't want to guess at the tension and just start cranking away with the lug key.I couldn't tension the heads 'by ear' and I'm sure a Mylar head is a lot stronger than an e-kit mesh head, (Mylar is ridiculously strong!). My snare head of the e-kit was not evenly tensioned and it was too loose as well. I adjusted it with the Drumdial Tuner to a tension that was just a little less than the recommended setting for a Mylar head.I immediately felt the response difference after I tightened and evened up the heads! My doubles, triplets, paradiddles, and many other rolls came back to me within a few days after that tune-up.The Drumdial is worth every bit of the money I paid and if you have an e-kit but never considered checking tightness and the evenness of the head tension, you could be surprised at how much your stick-work will improve when the heads have the right, even, tension!I highly recommend the Drumdial Precision Drum Tuner! 5-STARS!Rich

I'm not a drummer but play guitar with a world class drummer who just doesn't take the time to really dial in drum tone and pitch. I got this for my drummer friend as a Christmas present but first I tuned his drums in the studio and watched his reaction when he was warming up...to say the least he picked up on the difference immediately and was completely blown away as to what his drum kit sounded like properly tuned and dialed in. We have since experimented with different timbres and achieved repeatable results each time. This instrument is easy to use, well made, and easily re-calibrated making it an extremely useful and inexpensive way to improve your drum kits tone.As a guitarist, I have a very decent ear but like any other professional use various tuners for maximum tonal accuracy especially when working on projects where stable, consistent, and repeatable tuning is crucial....I can't imagine trying to keep a drum set tuned on the road or even in the studio without using something like this as a reference point like nearly every single musician that plays a stringed instrument does taking into account all of the environmental factors (hot, cold, humidity, moving between gigs) which adversely affect pitch.