Two or more deadening elements are in contact with the underside of the drum head and are provided with a mechanism which moves the deadener or deadeners across the drum head thus varying the effective resonating area of the head so that the drum can be tuned while playing. As an example, the drum tuning can be changed from a bass drum to a concert tom. The preferred embodiment includes a pair of opposed, curved deadeners which are moved towards and away from one another in concentric relationship with the drum head. The actuator system is arranged to move the first deadening element at a rate of movement different from the second and thus defining three effective resonating areas of different sizes between the first and the periphery, between the first and the second and between the second and the periphery.

The invention relates to a drum and to a device (1) therefor, having a system (3) for altering the attack and decay behavior, in particular the note length of the drum (2). The aim of the invention is to provide a device for a drum and a drum having such a device, which can alter the attack and decay behavior quickly and with little effort, and in particular enables setting of the note length and also of the timbre of the drum largely independently of the pitch. This aim is achieved in that the system (3) is fastened to the drum (100, 2) and has a clip (5) on which an adjustable connecting element (6) is arranged, which is designed for a connection to a support arm or to a base support (7).

A drum and pitch adjustment device for a drum includes a drum with a sound producing membrane, a device for applying pressure to the sound producing membrane, and a cable configured to the device for applying and releasing pressure to the sound producing membrane, changing the pitch of the drum, but goes back to the drum's original pitch when absent this force. A hand operated lever, located on the side of the drum, operates the cable which makes the pressure device push up against the sound producing membrane and changing it's pitch. Absent this force, the drum goes back to its original pitch, which creates different tonal variety when played in real-time.

An acoustic variable porting system includes an acoustic element and an acoustic variable porting element forming a port into the acoustic element. The acoustic variable porting element is adjustable between at least an open position, in which the port is generally open, and a closed position, in which the port is generally closed. The acoustic element may be at least one of: a sub-kick, a ported drum, and a speaker.

Provided is a percussion instrument including a substantially cylindrical barrel and a weight fixed to the barrel. More specifically, a plurality of weights 5A to 5D may be provided on the inner circumferential surface of a shell 2 of a drum 1 (a percussion instrument). The weights 5A to 5D may be provided at positions where the weights 5A to 5D have four-fold rotational symmetry in the circumferential direction of the shell 2. The weights 5A to 5D may be each provided between lugs 3 that are provided adjacent to each other on the outer circumferential surface of the shell 2.

Particular embodiments described herein provide for a drum that includes a body, a skin, an attachment point, a support arm that can travel back and forth through the attachment point, and an accessory, wherein when the accessory is positioned on or proximate to the skin, a natural sound of the drum is varied when the drum is struck. In an example, the accessory is removable and can be replaced with a different accessory that will cause a different sound to be produced when the different accessory is positioned on or proximate to the skin and the drum is struck.

The invention is a sound-attenuating system operative to attach to a surface of a metallic percussion instrument, and attenuate sound produced by striking the sound-attenuating system with a drum stick.

A tuning ring for adjusting a sound timbre of a drum head includes: a tuning ring body for disposing beneath a bottom surface of the striking portion of the drum head and having an opening so as to reduce the unstable sound timbre and the uncertain fluttering overtone, thereby causing the tuned sound timbre clear and being concentrated to be a thicker sound timbre and optimizing the sound timbre of the drum head. If the present invention is applied to the drum head which has been stretched to a finished state, the tuned sound timbre does not change, thereby achieving the abovementioned optimal quality of the tuned sound timbre.

A musical instrument includes: a vibrating member configured to be vibrated by a playing operation; an adjusting mechanism configured to perform physical adjustment to change a vibration manner of the vibrating member in playing; a detector configured to detect an adjustment state of the adjusting mechanism; a musical-sound generator configured to generate musical sound based on the playing operation; and a controller configured to control a manner of generation of the musical sound by the musical-sound generator, based on the adjustment state detected by the detector.

Accessories to improve the tonal qualities of a guitar or other stringed instruments include a bridge sound plate, a bridge support, a stress tube, and one or more bridge pin bolts. A bridge pin bolt may include a head, a shank, a thread, and a nut, the head of the bridge pin bolt having a void therethrough extending from a front of the head to a back of the head to receive a guitar string therethrough, the void extending upwardly from the front of the head to the back of the head. One or more of the accessories may be formed of brass or another material with good tonal properties. A sound plate may be adjustable or tunable. The accessories may be used independently, or may be used together as a system of accessories.