question for the drummer

natehusky · October 20, 2012, 11:55:09 AM

my lugs keep loosening on my vistas , mostly on my floor toms. anybody else have this problem? is the solution lock tight medium? i seem to to remember some one telling me vasaline would help. thoughts?

RAGER · October 20, 2012, 12:43:12 PM

Use a couple jam nuts i guess. lI had a drummer that did that. But to me it's not hard to just tighten once in a while. I'mm sure you do too but I keep a tuning key right handy and retension often in the middle of playing. I don;t know, just seems normal for something you;re hitting with sticks

natehusky · October 20, 2012, 01:04:57 PM

It does seem natural but for some reason it's the bottom lugs so its not like I can tighten them between songs

RAGER · October 20, 2012, 01:10:16 PM

Oh we'll then I would try jam nuts

VOLVO))) · October 21, 2012, 09:42:12 AM

Removable blue loctite.

justJon · October 21, 2012, 01:09:14 PM

To be clear: Are you talking about the tension rods? The ones that tune the heads? Or are your lugs actually loosening from the shell? Vistalites had a tendency to do that if the little rubber washers are missing or worn, because you can't tighten the lug screws on Vistas as much as you would wooden shells without cracking the acrylic. If it's just the T-rods, yeah, A drop of the removable loctite works great. I used to have to re-tune my snare between songs, because of lots of heavy rimshots. A drop of loctite, and now the only reason I touch the rods are to change heads.

natehusky · October 21, 2012, 02:13:49 PM

Yeah tension rods . I tightened them up last night but next time I'll use the loctite

db3jed · October 21, 2012, 02:19:16 PM

Yeah Loctite blue.

RAGER · October 21, 2012, 03:20:48 PM

He's talking about the bottom heads. That doesn't happen from rimshots. Now if your talking about putting threadlock or jam nuts on the the t rods for the top heads then you still have stretching and temp changes. How do you figure for that? I've never used anything of the sort for either. I can see doing that for the bottom heads but never for the tops. I'm confused. it seems every time i sit down I eventually have to tighten the top rods a bit. But hey I'm mainly a guitar player so enlighten me plz.

justJon · October 21, 2012, 08:48:40 PM

Heads will stretch, so I try to seat/ stretch/crank them as much as possible when I put a new one on. I'm hard enough on heads that by the time they stretch out after all that, it's time for new ones. If the bottom heads are loosening, it's probably from sympathetic vibrations, and I'm just guessing, but i'd say you tune the reso side pretty loose, almost slack? I tune everything pretty tight, and let the size of the drum get me the depth of tone I need. Either way, the loctite will still allow you to turn the t-rods a little bit, if you need to tweak the tuning.

Discö Rice · October 22, 2012, 12:05:23 PM

I've never had that issue. Might be because I don't really tune my toms above medium-low. I'd feel pretty weird putting loctite on my lugs, but whatever works, I guess. You said these are Vistalites, right? Could it be that the seam is failing, and that's what's causing the issue?