IMPORTANT! Each Custom Design Package fee covers one image file upload for snare drums, one image file upload for bass drums and one image file upload for all tenor drums. If your custom design requires a separate image for each snare drum, each bass drum or each tenor drum, you will need to purchase a Custom Design Package for each individual drum.
We will be using the Pearl tenor drum template and will be designing for a sextet tenor drum configuration with 6"-8"-10"-12"-13"-14" drums. This particular example covers all of the drums on the template. Like the snare and bass drum Custom Design Option Templates, the shells are oriented from a central location to ensure alignment.
First, we will open our template, for this example we will only be focusing on the tenor drum template. Your template will contain the bass drums and snare drums as well.
Here is the artwork with which we will be working. It is the same artwork that is also used for our snare drum and bass drum template design examples.
Now, let's place our artwork on our template. Feel free to move, tile, and rotate the design as necessary to cover the templates for your configuration of drums. Keep in mind that if you stretch your design beyond its original maximum size, the quality of the final image when printed will be reduced in quality. Also, your design will not appear on your Drum Slips if it exceeds the boundaries of the templates of the drums you are designing for. Below, indicated in bright red are the areas that will not be printed, this also applies to the left and right sides of the template (not pictured). Make sure that your design is located within the parameters of all templates for your drum sizes. If you are choosing to add the emblem incision on your Drum Slips, then it is not necessary to design on the manufacturer's emblem, as it will be punched out to make room for your drum's emblem. If you are choosing to exclude the emblem incision on your Drum Slips, then it will be necessary to design on the location of the manufacturer's emblem, as it will not have an incision to be punched out. It is also important for us to mention that due to tension being applied to your drum's head, the top part of the design will be lost (marked in blue and white). The amount of design loss depends on the amount of tension applied to the head.
Analyzing your tenor drum design surface area:
Above you will see our artwork (semi-transparent) placed on the tenor drum template. Here, we show you the limitations of your design surface area on the front of the drums. The area in green is the front most visible part of the drums. As big and bulky as tenors are, we must admit that the visible design area is rather small and limited. The dark green area that is labeled "most visible area" is the absolute most visible part of all six tenor drums where their design parameters overlap. The lighter green area below it indicates the front portion of drums that do not have overlapping design parameters.
Due to the angled cut on most tenor drums, half of the design area on the shell of the drum is naturally lost. If you are attempting to maintain a consistent design with your snare and bass drums, you will be forced to make one of two decisions.
1. Keep the design dimensions and location of the artwork the same as the snare and bass drums, and sacrifice the bottom part of the design on the front of the tenors, or choose a design that compliments all instruments.
OR
2. Modify the current design or create a new design all together that has different dimensions and placement of artwork but retains a consistent theme with the snare and bass drums.
Try to keep the area in dark green the most focused part of your design, as it will be more visible. Also, it's important to be aware that the main quad drums of a tenor configuration are generally the most visible drums during a performance. The inner spot drums will not be seen as often.
Below are some examples of how we could place our image artwork and what the end result would look like:
Design Example Option 1 - Half Shell Split
Pros - Top of design is clearly visible / can be more consistent with snare drum design placement.
Cons - Bottom half of design is almost entirely lost on most visible part of drum.
Design Example Option 2: Centered on Emblem (Top 1/5 of shell)
Pros - Can have a more uniform look with snare and bass drums by accurately placing the artwork around the emblem.
Cons - Top of design is lost almost entirely.
Design Example Option 3: Centered at Top 1/3 of Shell
Pros - Design is nearly symmetrical on top front half of most visible part of drum.
Cons - Hard to make uniform with snare's emblem placement (as the emblems are located at the top 1/3 of shell on snares).
As you can see, there is no right or wrong way to design custom Drum Slips for tenors. Every choice you make will have pros and cons. Use the information we have provided at your own discretion, and feel free to disregard our design suggestions, as they are only our opinions and are entirely subjective. The final design decision will be up to you. Good luck creating your custom Drum Slips and we look forward to working with you as you venture to create your masterpieces!
