Hi guys,
I`ve always wondered which was the best head to muffle on a bass drum or both for that matter.I know there are alot of variables here in this equation(bass drum size,shell thickness,drum head type,etc.).What are your preferences or opinions on this matter? Thanks in advance for you interest and ideas.
Sorry,should have posted this in "The General Drum Questions" section of the forum.
Wayne
I use old original heads on my vintage drums. I place a felt strip horizontally down under the beater location on the beater side. That and a little tweaking on the top two tension rods get me the sound that i want.
Mike
I have a coated Emporer on the batter side with a felt strip going horizontally where the beater hits the drum. No muffling on the resonant side.
You'll get a thousand different combo's of using felt... I use the opposite to above.. with nothing on the batter, I utilize Tommy P's method of batter head set up.. but use a standard 2" strip from 11 oclock to 7 o'clock on the Reso.. (this is a 24x14 with Emad Reso & PS3 batter)... The sound guys love it and so do I..
(If my Reso was not "offset" ported I would use no strip at all... IMO the only way to port a head is "exact" dead centre.. It is impossible to tune a reso head with an offset port adjacent to tuning lugs.. The heads are never consistent pitch)..
Cheers
John
That may be true, but if you tune your resonant side head way up, it doesn't make much difference.
I started with John Bonhams method of using felt strips on both heads. Bonzo had one on the reso at like 10 and 7 o clock. I ended up running two on each head and was happy. This is on a 24" Fibes fiberglass shell. The Fibes t-rods are a pain to work with so I did not try any other combinations. Our singer went out and bought a Remo coated ambassador head and had our band logo put on it using vinyl, like they use on vehicles. I'm thinking with that on there I wont use a felt strip. My Slingerland 24" has a reso head that was painted with spray paint and a Slingerland logo sticker and it sounds great just with that, felt strip on batter side. Rest of my kits I like felt on both sides.
Out of thriftyness I coated old clear remo pinstripe head with white oilpaint. Works great. No felt strip needed. Same for (a pretty thick) oil paint on a single ply clear head.
I have one felt strip on batterside when I don't use a powerstroke 3.
No strip at reso. If I need more dampening (in studio) I use a sweater and simply place it on the grond, touching the reso head. I experiment with the amount of cloth touching the head until the desired sound. No fuss.
Playing acoustically I like the sound as open as is reasonable in my band.
I'm addicted to these Emad batter heads [pic]. Don't need nothing else in or on the BD unless you're going for that 70s thud. There's a round foam dampener ring you can install or remove to taste/situation. Actually the head comes with a thick and a thin foam ring. Sometimes I stick a bed-sheet in there if I really want to kill it.
Mitch
I'm addicted to these Emad batter heads [pic]. Don't need nothing else in or on the BD unless you're going for that 70s thud. There's a round foam dampener ring you can install or remove to taste/situation. Actually the head comes with a thick and a thin foam ring. Sometimes I stick a bed-sheet in there if I really want to kill it.Mitch
Mitch,
Have you ever had an issue with the black plastic receiver ring separating from the head? Some fellow drummers in my area have complained of this...Just curious...
Cheers
A suitable substitute for the felt strip (if you have none on hand), is some 2" elasticized bandage from the chemist.. or your first aid kit.. works fine...
Cheers
John
