and magically

My tri-toms sound kinda dull, and I want them more crisp, but I JUST broke a head and don't want to over-tighten them.

I want the closest I can get to Blue Devil's tenor's sound.

Not sure on their sizes.

6,8,10,12,13,14.

The use some type of remo pinstripe head. The problem may be that your tri-toms are so old that they cannot achieve the highest quality of tone that the major drum corps have today.

A useful way i found to get the air out of remo pinstripes is just play on the head in the area you see the rainbow. once it's away you re-tune.

Always start with drum 4. It is the hardest to get sounding right and if you get the top three drums where you want them you might find yourself unable to get that 4th drum to sound good relative to the others. Its much easier to crank drum one up than to fix drum four last minute.

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One of the most important things to do is getting the individual drums in tune with themselves.

Imagine you have a drum with 8 lugs. Once you have the head near the pitch you want check the pitch of each individual lug. (I usually tap lightly with my key about one to three inches away from the rim, next to the respective lug). Find the lowest pitched lug (lets say it lug 4), now check the lug directly across from it (lug 8) for sympathetic vibration. You might find you were hearing the pitch from the other lug. If there isn't a lug directly across from it then shame on your drum manufacturer for cutting corners.

Once you are sure you have found the lowest pitched lug bring it up a little bit. Then repeat the process until the drum is in tune with itself and the pitch you want it.

This is important because when the drum is in tune with itself it can really speak. If its not in tune with itself you can get weird overtones, and the drum wont project as well as it might otherwise.

Don't go crazy about this, its not science, your just going for close not perfect.

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I don't think a tension gauge (a few people mentioned this) would work very well with a set of tenors, sometimes your rim is a little bent, your head a little warped, your bearing edge a little bashed. Tenor tuning isnt that exact. They work wonders on a set of timpani though. Maybe on a brand new set of quads?

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As far as intervals go. I'm a fan of 4ths because I like that huge open range, but anything works really, just depends on what you want tonally from your tenors.

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The pinprick trick works ok on clear pinstripes. I havnt found it to be helpful with any other kind of head. Basically if your head sounds super dead it will breed a bit more life into the tone of your head.

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As far as tuning to a set pitch, its hard but if your whole show is in the same key, you have drums that will hold a pitch for that long, AND you have a tech who can pull that off, more power to you.

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With regard to higher/lower...In an ideal world we would be tuning to what is most musically appropriate...but that's not always the best choice. Here is a few things to think about.

If your tenor line is smoking, go ahead and reef those drums so everyone can hear it.

If your playing in a high school gym, higher pitched drums will go a long way in fixing balance/clarity of intent problems.

If your drums cant hold a pitch then don't ruin them more by cranking the hell out of them.

If your line isn't playing that great keeping the drum tuning low will hide some dirt, but it also makes it harder for the players to hear what clean is.

Tuning too high kills all the tone in your drums. Drum four especially sounds bad when tuned to high.

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With regards to the specific manufacturers...

Yamaha - These drums sounds great last a long time. I think they sound the best reefed to the moon, but also sound good at a lower pitch. Plus they make motorcycles and that's just cool. (though I ride a ninja)

Pearl - These drums have more tone than the Yamahas. They generally sound better a little lower pitched than the Yamahas. Also great drums that last a long time.

Dynasty - These are alright, the mounting system is awesome but it stops there. The drums RCC and Blue Devils use are not the same ones they ship out. (Im sure this is true with any company but the level of difference is basically unacceptable). If you put a set of suedes or coated emperors on these and reef em you can get close to that blue devil/RCC sound. Not the greatest sounding drums in the world, not the worst.

Premier - Premier has come out with 3 different sets of tenors over the past decade.

The free-floating tenors: I think these were ditched back in 2001, cool concept but the drums didnt have much tone, the rims also tended shifted away from the bearing edge, causing a nice twangy ping on your brand new heads. If you reef em they are hard to hear on the field. Sound best low to mid range.

The Drumset Tenors: I call em the drumset tenors because they have have drumset lugs. These drums actualy sound good when you pull them out of the box but as the lug casing break (and they will), the rim warps (and it will) and the shell starts caving in (and it will) these drums sound like poo. Watch out for those drumset tension rods breaking too, almost lost an eye one day>< I think they stopped making these in 2006

The revolution series: Premiers new line of stuff, its better as far as the hardware goes, but in the end you have to work twice as hard to get them to sound as good as a set of pearls or yamahas from the late 90s. The hardware will still break, its just going to take longer. They don't sound good reefed but in the low to mid range they sound ok.

Ludwig - Um, I dont know because the only set I have ever played on/tuned was a kiddie set from the late 80s. Those drums sucked but hey maybe the new stuff is better. Perhaps someone can chime in on what range sounds good for these.

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If you take anything away from my post please just make sure that the tuning of each individual lug is close.

I'm going to state the obvious, but some people may or may not know.

When you're tuning your drum heads, make sure that each sweet spot around the lugs on the head match to the same tune. Tap around in a star pattern and make sure that you have the same tune all the way around the head.

This will not only ensure a good quality sound, but will also allow for even vibration.

Bear in mind that playing in the "normal" tenor sweet spot will make the tune start to fade on the head unevenly, so go back periodically (before your show) and lather, rinse, repeat.

I was always taught to tune the intervals between the drums, and to not go for a pitch.

While I can appreciate the effort that goes into tuning tenor and bass lines to specific intervals, I generally just tune to whatever sounds good to me at the moment.

On big block drums, I tend to start at the bottom and get the #4 drum right where I like it -- a nice balance between a firm feel and a full, low tone. On small block drums, I tend to tune down from the eight-inch #1 drum since its tuning range has such a small sweet spot. Too loose and it feels like you're playing on a wet paper bag. Too tight and it sounds like a spock.

After getting the first drum right, I work my way up (or down) the set, adjusting intervals by ear. Like DrumCrack mentioned (when resurrecting a year-old thread) , it's really important to keep each head balanced, meaning the head has the same tension and pitch all the way around. If a head is unbalanced, you can get some really nasty overtones from the drum. An out-of-balance head will also cause the tone of the drum to sound different depending on where it's struck.

If you've got more than one set of tenors to tune, get one set tuned just right and tune the other sets to match. Balanced heads are absolutely critical for this. If you're trying to get two drums in tune with each other and they're out of balance, you may be able to get the primary pitch to match, but each drum will likely have different overtones and the mismatch can cause a really dissonant "bark".

When I tune tenors, I just get a good tone on 4 then tune a Perfect 5th up to 2 and a Major 3rd up to 3. Then a minor 3rd from 1 to 2, and minor 3rds up from there

That sounds like a really odd way to tune your drums. I can't imagine you would here too many other lines using that same technique, Major 2nds and 1 Major 3rd? Whatever works I suppose.