Head Q/A's.

[bojangleman]

this probably has been brought up...but not to my specs. ok my 14" floor tom. the one i put legs on that was a rack tom.. it still has the rack mount on it, would that be affecting the sound. cause i have Remo Emperor smooth white on it, and it sounds soooo flat and nasty(yes, that is a new sound)..and i havent replaced the bottom heads for ever...so would those be the problem and what could i do...or is that nothing to do with the problem and advice?..haha thanks!


Alex

[harryconway]

Lots of lost information here. You have a 14" homemade floor tom. 14 by what? 14x10? Most 14" floors are/were 14x14. A 14x10 with 3 legs on it, in and of itself might reduce plenty of the shell resonance. Coupled with the fact that the reso. head needs to be replaced, and throw in the Emperor (a 2 ply) batter to further reduce resonance. Yeah, you got yourself a whole lot of potential flat and nasty going on.

[bojangleman]

oh and sorry bout putting it in the wrong place... but yes, its a 14x14. and it was a rack tom..with the tom mount..but i drilled and put some floor tom mounts and legs on it. it has the stock heads on the bottom. and the emperors are fairly new...i bout them say 2 months ago...i try to replace them every 6-8 months. but it is just flat as a piece of paper...not jokin...thanks! btw...sorry bout the info i left out..forgot to add it.

Lots of lost information here. You have a 14" homemade floor tom. 14 by what? 14x10? Most 14" floors are/were 14x14. A 14x10 with 3 legs on it, in and of itself might reduce plenty of the shell resonance. Coupled with the fact that the reso. head needs to be replaced, and throw in the Emperor (a 2 ply) batter to further reduce resonance. Yeah, you got yourself a whole lot of potential flat and nasty going on.

Alex

[Colonel Bat Guano]

I'd go ahead and take the old mounting stuff off, to make a better judgement call about the way the drum is now with legs. That stuff couldn't be helping the sound. Definitely get new heads top and bottom and I say get single ply. I had trouble using smooth white emperors on some rack toms that I individually mounted on stands and the crap tone was just like you described. I went with coated single ply top and bottom (coated ambassador) and it was like bringing the toms back from the dead.
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[harryconway]

14x14. Yeah, lose the rack mount as CBG suggests and change heads. Ambassador or Controlled Sound batter, if you're a Remo guy, will give you a much more open sound. Since that's the direction you're trying to go. What make and model drum is it? Adding extra holes to a drum is never a good idea, as far as re-sale value goes. And if it's real cheapie shell, on the other hand, it just flat out might not make a very good "floor tom", and you'll probably have to take the legs off it and suspend it.

[bojangleman]

ok, but the tom mount that was suspending it earlier is not a ISS-suspension mount.it is drilled into the drum. so even if i took it off, there would still be a hole. and the drum is a CB...(i know....) MX series. i had some Aquarian studio heads on the set at one point..and it was 1 ply...and it sounded the same and it didnt last. so i try to stay away from 1 ply heads. but i dont know...thanks for the imput, and welcome more!


Alex