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Once in the coupling nuts the rods should just barely come out on the bottom.
This allows for the most freedom to tighten and tune the drum when finished.
Now thread on some nuts. We will use them to adjust and tighten and tune the
drum to it proper tone.
For the first bit of tightening I keep the drum upside down. I do this so I
can adjust the rings as it pulls together. Be very diligent about keeping the
drum shell centered in the rings. Keep the flesh ring centered in the retaining
ring. If you do not do so the retaining ring may not “bite” into the hide
well enough. By tightening evenly you should be able to keep everything lined up
and you will begin to feel the tension on the nuts increase slightly as the
tightening of the nuts starts pulling on the drumhead.
After it gets fairly tight you can move it with out things shifting.
Then I flip the drum over and stand it up on the tensioning rods, which have
now become legs. The top will now look like this…
Notice that there is about an inch of hide below the bearing edge of the drum
shell. This allows the Rings to be low enough that you are not hitting your
hands on them when playing. That is much more comfortable then having a smaller
gap there. If there is much more things seem to get a bit out of proportion.
While I have it in this stage, I tighten the nuts little by little, in an even
manner. Watch the retaining ring. You will want it to be as level as possible so
tighten accordingly. If one side is too high, tighten the nuts on that side a
bit more than the other. By doing so you can maintain a good level to the rings,
which makes the drum more professionally done. Also it keeps the pressure on the
drumhead even and that leads to better tone. I keep tightening until I get a low
toned “Bong” kind of sound. Once there, allow the hide to dry for several
hours, or over night.
When the skin has dried thoroughly, it is time to tune the drum. Start
tightening the nuts evenly all around the drum. As it gets tighter the sound
when tapped will go from a low bong to a cleaner, tighter sound. Be very careful
to watch the retaining ring and be sure that the drumhead is not slipping.
Tighten the head until you get the sound that you are looking for. On the Kete
drum it should have nice and metallic sounds around the edges, with deeper
richer tones in the center. These drums should be a bit deeper in sound than the
larger side of a bongo drum. It should be higher and more of a lead instrument
than a conga. Snappy, and clanging sounds are both quite with in the range of
the Kete.
Now that I have the drum tighten and tuned and I am sure that there is no
slippage in the drumhead, I trim off the excess hide that is above the retaining
ring, leaving a nice an neat edge. Now you will notice that there is a slight
bit of hair stubble that has shown up since shaving the hide. This is easily
taken care of with some 220-grit sandpaper. It will remove the hair and it also
removes any layers of skin that need to come off. Be careful not to over do it!
You don’t want to sand through the drumhead, my only purpose is to smooth
things out a bit. Now check the tuning over the next several days as the skin
may still stretch a bit more. It will eventually stabilize, and not require
tuning often. When it does it will be small ¼ turns on the nuts to get it back
into shape…
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