I use felt strips on the batter and on the reso. My batter head is an Aquarian Force 1, which is a single-ply head with an interior damping ring (similar, I think, to Remo's Powerstroke 3). Reso is an intact Aquarian Modern Vintage single ply. No bedding or other laundry within.

Although my vintage kit is from 1970 or so and all of its toms came with adjustable muffling knobs, I dislike the effect they have on stick feel so I do not use them. I do like some damping, so I fit all my toms with Remo Pinstripes (or equivalent) on the batters. I use Aquarian Classic Clears on the resos.

It's kind of odd that some people get picky about whether it's appropriate or not to use external damping (whether with felt, gel, or special heads) on vintage drums when so many of the vintage drums I've seen (and own) originally came with some sort of damping mechanism built in.

If I want a bit of damping, should I only use the knob-and-felt doughnut thingie that came with my drum instead of putting a Pinstripe or a piece of gel on it? And just suffer with the change in stick feel? I'd rather not.

I also use the original shell-mounted tom mounting system, although it is said that they dampen the drums' vibrations relative to modern suspension mounts. Modern drums sound so "boingy" to me.

Vintage, modern, muffled, open, every drummer's sound is his or her sound, however we get it.

Well said, sir! :)

Mitch

I use a felt strip on the batter. Pitch up higher the reso side with no muffling. I prefer the felt on the batter side because it gives more beater bounce. Felt on the reso side will give a spongy feeling beater hit IMHO. I also don't stretch the felt tight either. I kinda just lay it on and start assembling the head. If you pull it tight and put the head on, it will pull the strip even tighter when you start tuning up the head. I also use thin felt. Not thick. Plus it's only a few inches wide. There's several variables to be tried in this method alone.. I like a little bit of resonance. If a drum is choked out too much, it looses volume and power. So the muffling in my opinion must be minimal. I want to be a thunderous presence when I play. And bass drums I notice with most people are always lost in the mix. Again, this depends on the music you play.

Jason

Word. The silliest is that modern drums are designed to ring as long as possible, then half the drummers who play them just add moon gels or other dampening to combat the ring. Shoulda just bought a round badge!

Yes, well said indeed. Who among the great iconic drummers, from B.R. to Ringo Starr, Bonham to Bozzio, Baker to Barker, even cared what sound other drummers preferred? To each his own.

It is funny though, how certain "sounds" become trends and fads. Anyone else remember permanently removing your bass reso head, throwing a pillow inside, and wallpapering the batter head with duct tape? We could have saved a lot of money and just used plastic 5-gal. pails as bass drums.

Mike

Hard enough to get heads to seat well on my '47 Slingy - I've already cut the aluminium collar half a dozen times so it fits comfortably - as a result I'm not using any felt. I did have a few pillow cases inside touching the heads when I had a full front head on it but now that it's ported there's nothing inside the drum. Coated ambassador with a port (and reinforcing ring) on the front, coated emperor on the back with a beater patch made from an old coated amb. I've put a few pieces of white gaffer tape at the bottom of the front head, on top of the remo logo and directly behind where the hoop mounted anchor is. Batter head has a full circle of the same white gaffer around the perimeter, basically a home made Superkick/Emad because I'll be damned if I'm spending the money for one of those in a 26". Works well, I'm happy.

Felt strip on batter PS3, Felt strip opposite side reso Smooth Ambassador. You still get some oomph but not to much over ring. That's what I do with my 14"x22" 's

Funny thing is, after I posted that, I went over to Guitar Center to pick up some parts they had ordered me (for free, bless their hearts, a spur for an old Sound Percussion bass drum I got at a thrift store).

There was this teenaged kid there setting up a DW Design Series kit to try out; he went to the trouble of tuning the toms and snare. He finally got it all set up and proceeded to rip some of those lightning D&B-derived licks that the kids are messing with these days (don't usually care for it, myself). Per the thread topic, none of the drums had any damping, except the snare had a Remo Sound Control with the dot on the underside of the batter head.

That kit, and the drummer playing it, sounded fantastic.

Interesting combo: a kid playing a style I don't much care for on a type of kit that I wouldn't personally favor for my own use and it was great.

Maybe because it was him being good at HIS sound and style, using the tools he likes best, which had nothing to do with MY sound and style and the tools I like best.

I've always preferred external damping on the "batter" head...be it bass snare or tom. It seems to me that to cut/curb the resonance short is the objective without altering the stick/beater feel. Mechanical internal dampers wound up against a head are too severe IMO. I have a full set of 70's Rogers rim mount dampeners for the kit which work well for snare and toms... Had to bend/shape these a little, in order to fit Sticksaver rims.. but they do work well... tuning is not affected by the dampeners and the feel/rebound of the head remains natural...

Cheers

John

Yeah if he was an impressive player I think I know exactly what you mean. It commands your attention even if it's not your style, at least for a couple of minutes. There's a clip of Benny Greb making a little toy kit sound pretty great.

Mitch