Is it bad or not to keep a frame drum tuned all the time?

I have a synthetic head drum and I untune it after I am done with it but it takes a while.

Hi there,
that's a controversal subject you're touching here. There's two sides to the problem, on one hand, a very tight head and the strain this puts on the body of the instrument might deform the frame/body (this not only applies for frame drums). On the other hand are many instruments held in shape by the head and go out of round or crack if you loosen the head to much. So several factors are to be considered
-first how tight is your head when "in tune"? if it's very tight and requires strenghth tu tune up, you might want to tune it down a bit when not playing, but not loosen it completely.
-plastic or natural? synthetic skins wont shrink or loosen depending on the humidity, so you don't have to consider eventual shrinkage or stretching out. A natural skin can get stretched out when you tune it up in a humid climate and keep it tight, there you want to loosen it a bit when not in use.
-the frame/shell: a thin frame like on the Cooperman Velez drums bends more easily, so you might not want to keep the head cranked up all the time, while a Drum with a 2cm thick ash frame like on some DRDs can take a lot more.
One thing I have with my DRDs is that i used to loosen the skins completely when not playing and as it is dry in my studio now from the heating in winter, the skins shrunk up and now i have no way of tuning them down more.
How do others handle their drums?
best
Titus

For me it depends on the drums. I detune DRD drums every time because of the nature of their tuning system and because they have natural heads. For cooperman or other plastic skin drums, I only detune them if I played them in very high tuning.
Usually I leave them tuned with the tension I play them (22" drum usually D, 16" drum around G).
The drum really settles in the tuning and stays very stable in pitch.
Regular de-tuning and re-tuning also wears a little bit on the tuning system.

Titus wrote:

QUOTE:
Hi there,
...
One thing I have with my DRDs is that i used to loosen the skins completely when not playing and as it is dry in my studio now from the heating in winter, the skins shrunk up and now i have no way of tuning them down more.
How do others handle their drums?
best
Titus

Hi,

I was about to post to tell the same "problem" about my new DRD Daf with calf skin, it's realy a great & nice instrument,
though when the climate is dry (like this last days here in France), I have no way to tune it down & the skin is too much stretched, pitch is way to high to play dervish rythms.

It's a bit too bad because it's such a great instrument, I have to call & talk about that with Roman to see if there can be a solution about it.

Of course when the climate gets more humid, the drum stretch out & all is well : beautifull low sound ...

take a long hot shower, leave the drum in the room (not directly under the water). After the shower the skin should be soaked. Now pump the drum pretty high and leave it to dry. Afterwards the skin will be stretched and the drum lower.

Interesting trick, thanx David,

though it seems a bit difficult to get the skin soaked,

I tried it and the skin was really stretched out, very very low,

but after a while if the drum is let in a "dry" room or place, it will stretched up quite fast indeed (with the heating & the very dry climate we have hear these last days) & the problem comes back.