Tuning a cowbell for your drumkit

I did this about a month ago, but KH, my musical e-buddy, suggested that I share it more widely.

I was at my local animal feed, etc. store, buying some bags of chicken feed (laying mash?), and I noticed that they sold cowbells -- like, actual "clank-clank, wandering-around-in-the-field" cowbells.  I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive cowbells for my drum kit, so I picked it up.

About four weeks ago I -- with difficulty -- pried out the clapper from inside the cowbell.  I managed to get a smaller-sized bolt cutter down in there and made some substantial nicks; then I bent it back and forth with pliers until the weak part bent, and then I bent that segment back until I could get out of the loop that was welded into the inside bottom of the cowbell.

However:  once the clapper was removed, I discovered that the cowbell was too "pingy" and sharp-sounding when I hit it with a drumstick.  I wanted to dull it down.

My solution was to melt some beeswax in a clean glass jar (salsa, with the label removed) in an old toaster oven that I have in the shop.  Then I grabbed the rim of the jar with pliers, and poured a little  melted beeswax into the bottom of the cowbell, then gently swirled the beeswax along the inside bottom of the cowbell (like brandy in a brandy snifter):  the beeswax cooled, leaving a layer of beeswax along the bottom one-third or so of the interior.

I repeated this perhaps five times, building up the layers, and striking it with a drumstick between applications, until it had the tone that I wanted.

If I had deadened the sound too much, I could've just heated the whole thing in the oven, open-end-down on a disposable aluminum pie tin, and started the process over.  I would've salvaged and re-used the beeswax, of course.


I have some somewhat-illustrative photos -- but they're on my cell phone and for some reason this PC (running a version of Linux) doesn't recognize my cell phone properly, so I can't extract my photos directly:  I have to use my laptop, then dump the pics on a USB flashdrive and carry them over.  So I don't do it on a regular basis, because it's inconvenient.

I'll probably carry the photos over in a week or so.


Anyhow:  just sharing a tip on how to tune and/or dampen a musical/percussion cowbell.


--GG