Over the past few months, I have had the honor of welcoming a few shipments of tuned gongs into this country. I have learned there are many types of gongs, but a few tune more easily and accurately than others:

The most popular are our Tuned Thai Gongs, featuring a raised center that is one of the characteristics giving them their unique sound and meditative quality. When struck, they have a clear fundamental pitch and a colorful array of warm overtones to give each gong its own “personality.” The fundamental is best heard when the gong is struck on the raised center, and the harmonics are clearer when struck about halfway between the center and the edge. We have successfully tuned these gongs to many pitches between B♭1 at ~59.9Hz (two ledger lines and a space below the Bass Clef) and G#5 at ~836Hz (just above the Treble Clef), with all quarter- or semi-tones within that range an option as well. These gongs do not distort easily because of the flanged edges and how thick they are compared to other gongs. The hand-carved designs on them really add to the overall aesthetics. I’ve had good luck recording them for percussion-based pieces I’ve written, and even playing a 13” G#3 like a hand drum in my lap focusing on the different areas of the gong for different overtones. We currently have these gongs for sale individually by size (no specified pitch, however they can be fine-tuned from where they are, within reason) and in the following tuned chromatic octave sets: Low (C2-C3), Mid (C3-C4), High (C4-C5), and Extra High (C5-C6). We can easily accommodate orders for specific pitches by phone/email/fax.

We also have mini Tuned Chau Gongs, which have a very clear and focused tone, a bit brighter than the Tuned Thai Gongs. These are sold only in chromatic octave sets C4-C5 and C5-C6 (not individually), however we do have other smaller Chau gongs available.

Opera Gongs, which “bend” up into a steady pitch, can be tuned here as well.  They have a bright tone and distort well for a “shimmering” sound when played at a loud volume. At a softer volume, these gongs have also have a nice warm tone. They are featured in Zivkovic’s multi-percussion pieces “Trio Per Uno,” and “Generally Spoken It’s Nothing But Rhythm,” among other popular percussion pieces.

The main focus when tuning and selling these gongs has been to make sure that everyone knows which octave the note(s) they want are in. We are using C4 as Middle C, and the gongs come to us based on A442. We can easily take any gong down to be based on A440 by request also. We go between the Helmholtz Designation (G#′′ / B♭, / etc.) written on the gongs when we receive them, to the Scientific Designation (G#5 / B♭1 / etc.) when we sort, tune, and sell them. There are a growing number of pieces that require tuned gongs, and they are fun instruments on their own – We are absolutely your best source for getting the right types and pitches for the right price!

With marching season fast approaching, we thought it would be a good opportunity to create a comparison chart of the current marching bass drum heads from Evans and Remo. Experimenting with different thicknesses, dampening systems, and coatings will help you achieve your desired marching bass drum sound. When you increase the thickness of the head, you increase the articulation and get a more focused, lower fundamental tone.

1. Remo Smooth White Ambassador Marching Bass Drum Heads come stock on marching basses from most manufacturers, including Pearl and Yamaha.
2. External/Internal Dampening can be added using Yamaha MA200 Tone Foam or Pearl TS14 Tone Foam.

We would love to hear your opinions on the different types of marching bass drum heads available. Please post in the comments section below.

One of our employees, Bill, had this Philadelphia Flyers Custom Gong made. Looks and sounds great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wODNTjayubA

Steve Weiss Music, your “All-Things-For-All-Drummers” place to shop and the leading drum and percussion product and information specialists since 1961, is going to change the way you shop online for your percussive needs. On Monday June 22nd, the Steve Weiss Music website will undergo a change that will enable you to more easily, quickly, safely, and effectively search and shop for all of your drumming needs.

We redesigned the site from the ground up to take advantage of cutting edge web and browser technologies. Along with the many things you will notice and immediately be able to use, there are a ton of features and benefits that are behind the scenes and will be working for you to ensure that your shopping experience with us will be more enjoyable and far more informative than ever before.

To help everyone discover the new features and benefits of our upgraded website, we are giving away FREE gifts with purchase during the week of June 22nd…..Monday thru Friday. Simply visit our website each and every day of this week and be one of the first 100 customers to purchase anything, that’s right ANYTHING, and you will receive the Giveaway-Of-The-Day for FREE!

Steve Weiss Music has been your trusted partner when purchasing every kind of percussion product known to man, both standard and strange. And since the inception of our website in February 2004, we have worked vigorously to provide each and every customer with a selection and shopping experience that is second to none.

We proudly present our upgraded and improved website, designed to better help everyone find and purchase all of the drum and percussion products you need and desire. Thank you for your continued support for the past 48+ years of our business and 5+ years on the world wide web……enjoy the show.

SWM

Steve Weiss Music has teamed up with Thomas Burritt from the University of Texas at Austin to offer a unique opportunity to learn interactively on the web. Thomas caught our attention with his Percussion Axiom TV online show and we thought it would be fun to team up and create a contest around learning a piece of music interactively online.

Starting June 15th, Thomas will begin teaching the marimba solo Katamiya by Emmaneul Sejourne in online videos as part of his PATV show. Katamiya can be found in the book 7 Stücke für Marimba. The winner of the contest will be selected based on who is the most “interactive” online with Thomas Burritt and Steve Weiss Music.

Click Here to Watch the Introduction Video with Thomas Burritt and Read About Contest Specifics

Several years ago, Pearl Drums introduced the Eliminator line of bass drum pedals that featured many adjustments and options that were not available on any pedal to that point. Today, they introduced the Pearl Demon Drive Bass Drum Pedal series that takes any pedal currently available to all new heights. Direct Drive, a first on any Pearl pedal, enables the foot board to act perfectly in sync with the players foot to eliminate the slight “hick-up” feel that a chain or belt drive produces after the beater strikes the head. Combine that with all of the other features that the new Pearl Demon Drive Bass Drum Pedal has, and you can literally adjust it to any feel and positioning you desire. Some would say that too many adjustments is a bad thing or that you will never need that many adjustments in your life. Having too many adjustments is not the point, and neither is the fact that you will most likely set-it-and-forget-it (ah….the long awaited Ron Popeil reference). The point is that you actually have the ability to set this pedal to whatever YOU want it to be; that is the beauty of it. If you never mess with it again, it has accomplished what it is designed to do, give you the player the ability to put your own feel and touch to it. This pedal will not be available until late April or early May, 2009. This is a bit of a drag and it is certainly not the least expensive pedal ever made. But, when it does hit, the wait and expense will be worth it.