Customer Reviews

Evans Torque Key

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I generally use the Rhythm Tech Memo Key (ASIN B0002E2EOE) to tune my heads, but this one is as good and has a feature I like more than the Rhythm Tech model - this tuning key clicks and disengages when the dialed-in torque is attained whereas the Rhythm Tech model requires you to reset a lever.

It is simple to use. All you do is hand tighten your lugs, set the dial on the key to an initial setting, then go around your drum in the standard opposing tightening pattern. Test, and increase the dial setting until you get the sound you want. Once you do achieve the sound I strongly recommend that you write the settings down so you can quickly dial in your preferred tuning the next time you tune your drums or change heads.

A few things to consider: tuning involves more than just the batter side heads, which is especially true in the case of snare drums. Unless you are seeking a flat sound, do not tune the resonant heads to the same torque as the batter side heads, else the heads will cancel each other out because they will be vibrating at the same frequency. Also, make sure your lugs are lightly oiled so that each has uniform resistance or the torque settings will be inaccurate. Finally, if you cannot get the sound you are looking for between setting increments (i.e., between dial setting #3 and #4), use a standard key and try one eigth turn increments.

Regardless of whether you play as a hobby or professionally, this key is an amazing tool that will allow you to quickly and easily change the dynamics of your drums.

This product does exactly what it says. It helps you get equal tension on the tuning rods. It DOES NOT help you tune your drums. Having equal rod tension doesn't necessarily mean that your drum head will have even tone distribution. It helped me tune a bit faster than doing it by ear. I wish I had purchases the drum dial instead and probably still will. You need a measurement of the head, not the tuning rods.

Well, first of all I must say that I'm an experienced drummer, and not tone-deaf. Still, tuning my drums was a long and often frustrating process.

It took me a lot of time to get a beautyful, resonant sound from one head, then I moved on to the other head of the same drum, and when I thought it was nice too I played it - just to find out that the heads were out-of-tune with each other... At this point I would start to make adjustments on one head in order to try to fix this, and usually got it right, but not all the times. Then, I would start the whole thing on the next drum... It took me a couple of hours to tune the whole kit - and it's a standard five-piece drumset! Not to mention that it was not rare to have one tom with a nice, full sound, and the one next to it sounding a bit like a plastic trash can...

Sounds familiar? Well, I must say that those days are over. Now, with this key I can easily and quickly have the sound I want from each drum. It is very easy to get both heads resonating - and it makes a BIG difference on he sound. It also encouraged me to quickly and effectively try different tensions and explore the whole pitch range of the toms and snare drum. I'm proud to say that, after playing the same kit for almost ten years, I'm finally discovering my drums' true sound.

That said, remember: for this key to work, you need to have a drum with flat shell borders, flat hoops, lubricated and aligned lugs and tension rods, and new heads. Otherwise the tension reading on the lugs will be inaccurate. Also, you might still need a regular drumkey for fine tuning - and for the hardware: this key is not supposed to mess around with tom holders and cymbal stands!

As many know, there is a standard way to tune a drum head, and the tension of any given rod might feel different than another, yet the pitch of the head will be the same at those positions. The torque key functions on rod tension - BUT - IF your rods are lubricated properly and the rods and tension sleeves are clean, you'll be surprised how close you can come with this key, and how fast head changing and tuning can be. You simply dial in the tension you want, then tune the head as normal, until the key clicks off at the given tension. Once you know what tension reading you want for any given drum and drum head, the next time you tune or change a head, simply dial in that tension and tune the head - simple. You can fine tune the head after that if you need, but after a bit of use, you'll find you can tune a head with this key quickly, and equal tension should be quite close each time. Super useful for a quick head change at a gig. And the tension head slot on the key is magnetized which is also handy. It's comfortable and easy to use. I think the large black portion is nice, compared to the size of a normal drum key. I'm on my second one, only because I used it as a normal drum key for tightening bass drum foot pedals, etc. Don't do that. Use it to tighten drum heads only and it will last a very long time. It's not a magic bullet. It is a tool; to help you do a job. I'll always have one in my stick bag.

Tune your snare the way you like it; test your Evans Torque Key to get a reading; write it on your head and it makes tune-ups a breeze.
Also keep it handy during sessions for quick re-tunes in case things slip a little or you want to dial up or down a little.
One of the little inventions that make it easier for players.

I recently bought my son a nice new PDP drum kit and I wanted to make sure he had a good head tuner. Tuned drums are by FAR better than drums left to their own devices. Tuned drums project better, sound better and have properly aligned harmonic overtones. That said, you would think you could use a standard drum key to achieve good tuning.

Well, you could. You could if you have all day to do it and a lot of patience and a really good ear. The Evans Torque key allows you to set the default tension for a particular drum head and then perfectly match all the other lugs to that torque setting. So it's not automatic, it still takes some skill to get the drum initially tuned right, but this tool makes it OH SO MUCH EASIER. So easy that even my 14 year old son is expert at it already.

I found this product to work as it said it would. I have always wasted to much time trying to set the heads set and have the tension to same on all sides for the sounds I wanted. With this device you just set the dial to where you want, go from side to side and in no time you have the sound that used to take me a long time to find. I reccommend this to anyone looking for a fast and simple way to tune you heads for each place you play.

First of all the key comes in a plastic package, so dont expect any kind of seal thet proves that this item hasn't been used before. The is very sturdy, kind of heavy, but you get used to the weight after using it for a bit. I quickly noticed that when i adjusted the toque dial to 5 the key moved without any effort without the expected "click". At first i thought the product was damaged, but i soon realized that you need to adjust the torque dial all the way up to 8 in order for the key to show some resistance. Upon aplying a pressure greater than the selected resistance in the torque dial you will get your "click" to tell you that you have reached the desired tension.

I ignored the fact that i had to crank the dial up a bit to get the first click, and i started to tune up my kit. Once i was done i tested the kit and i sounded amazing. The key really does what it was meant to do. The sound was even better than when i tuned the kit by ear (I'm not really good at that... Reason why i got this item).

When putting the key away i turned the dial back to zero. Few weeks later i wanted to re-tune my snare and i suddenly noticed that now the key didn't click when set on number 8 ! I had to crank the torque dial a full turn before even getting some resistance on the key's knob ! This really worries me since i expect to have to crank the dial higher and higher to get the first signs of resistance on the key. Eventually i think i'm going to have to buy another one to replace this one, so the lifetime guarantee an the product's description must be BS.

Other than this the key has turned to be an awsome product.

I bought this product even though there were several mixed reviews about it. I am glad I did. I am a beginner and have only tuned my kit by ear once before. I used this key for the first time 2 days ago as I bought a second bass and floor tom to add to my kit. I had to assemble my new drums when they arrived and tune them. There are many instructional videos on youtube on how to use this key but, in my opinion, not very good and not much help to me. The instructions that came with this torque key was not very clear either. To use this properly, you should turn the dial counter-clockwise all the way to zero until it stops (this was not mentioned in the product instructions or any of the instructional videos I've seen). Then, you can set the tension you want and start tuning your drums in the star pattern as usual. Once the tension is reached, the key will click and you can move on to the other lugs. Of course, you should only turn each lug 1/4 at a time and not turn it all at once until you hear the click. For me, I still fine tune my drums by listening after all the lugs have reached the same tension. I should mention that the dial on the key can go around twice. This means that if you want to set your tension at, say 12, you would turn the dial clockwise passed zero and set it to 2. At least, this is how I used this key and it seems to work for me as my drums sound pretty good. I think of this key as just a tool to help you tune your drums quicker with not much guess work, especially, if you're not good at tuning by ear. It was well worth what I paid for.

Well I can't tune worth anything so for me yes. Helped me balance out the head a lot quicker. If I had a better ear then I would use a normal key, but I can't hear tone very well so I use this.