Place the rods in each hole in the counter hoop. With your fingers, lightly screw them into the rod casing. They should turn easily - if not, then they may be going in at an angle. Don't force it with a drum key! You can strip out your tension rod or lug casing if you're not careful! Tighten with your fingers until the top of the tension rod JUST MAKES CONTACT with the counter hoop - don't use the drum key just yet.

After ALL tension rods are in place, go around the circumference (ooooh, a THREE syllable word - on a DRUM page, no less!) and make each lug "finger tight." You might have to go around a few times - when you tighten one lug, it pulls the counter hoop down and loosens the rods directly next to it. Double check that the head is in full contact with the bearing edge of the shell.

If you're getting some "waves" on one side of the head, you might need to "seat" the head with your hand. Place the palm of your hand in the center of the drum and push down a couple of time. Now check once again that each tension rod is again finger tight.

Pick a lug that's at "3 o'clock" & put your drum key on it. Start by tightening the key to the right (righty, tighty - lefty, loosey) ONE HALF TURN ONLY. Have some patience - don't crank the first tension rod a million times! Now, go to the rod that's directly across from the first lug (if you started at 3 o'clock, then go to the one that's at 9 o'clock). As a personal preference, I like to tighten that lug finger tight again before I do a half turn with the drum key. After you tighten the 9 o'clock rod, cross over to the 4 o'clock rod & repeat the process. Keep criss-crossing until you come back to the first tension rod. This time, go around again, but use ONE QUARTER TURNS.

This is the part I really hate! As I've mentioned before, the SNARE HEAD or bottom head is much thinner than the batter head because it must be able to vibrate to allow the snares to respond. Treat the snare head with caution! It's very easy to damage!

Let me start by saying: unless the snare head looks in bad shape, I'd encourage most beginners to not bother taking the snares and counter hoop off to clean it the way we did with the top head. Chances are that it's not nearly as dirty because it's facing down, not up. Most of the reason lies in the fact that you can mess up the snares with very little effort (and it's a real pain).

Taking off the bottom head

First you must disconnect the snares from the snare strainer. Every drum is different so I can't go into great detail here. Most have two screws located at the bottom of the snare strainer or on the opposite side of the drum where the back end of the snares are connected- loosen those two screw just enough to pull the cord or plastic strip free. Don't loose these two screws - they're small enough to blend in with that shag carpeting still found in most houses in Arkansas!

After you've taken off all of the tension rods, you should be able to pull the counter hoop off the drum. Take care that the snares pull free of the counter hoop without catching. If you can get by with just disconnecting ONE SIDE of the snare strainer, congratulations! You can now go through all of the steps above to clean the tension rods and tune the bottom head. Don't forget that when you put the counter hoop back on the drum, the holes (or "snare gate") MUST line up with the snare stainer! There's nothing like the feeling you get when you completely tune the bottom head & discover that the snare gate is on the wrong part of the drum! It helps to "thread" the snares through the gate on the counter hoop BEFORE putting the lugs back on!

Caution! Danger Will Robinson!

Don't attempt to tune the bottom head to the same tension as the top head! You should be able to press on the head   lightly with one finger and feel a little "give." Don't worry: if you tune it too tight, you'll know immediately! You'll probably hear a sharp POP, then you'll be making a trip to the music store to get another head! (Drumcorps snare drummers are the only ones on the planet who seem to have the skill to crank a head until just before it pops! I used to have that ability, but I lost it when I became a band director!).