18" bass drum heads versus 18" normal batter heads for bass drum

[freehandstyle]

Hey guys,

I got myself recently a 18" stage custom floor tom that has been nicely converted to a wood hoop with class bass drum from the seller.

I'm planning to give it a new bass head but I'm not sure which to get.

I know there's many available choices but my biggest question is what's the difference between bass drum heads and batter heads? the 18" specs seem to be just on the dot where you can either use batter heads or 18" bass drum heads.

In comparision it would seem the batter would be cheaper by like $10 which is a pretty good deal, but I wanna know what exactly is the pros and cons in using which and should I just perhaps go with the cheaper way and use the 18" batter heads instead.

Thanks

[caddywumpus]

It depends what kind of sound/head you're going for. I have a pair of coated ambassadors (tom heads) that sound GREAT for jazz. I also have a Superkick II and Aquarian single-ply resonant with a hole (both bass drum heads), and they sound good as a combo for rock/pop/funk.

My guess is either will do just fine. Both do well in my experience...

[DrumEatDrum]

An 18" bass drum head has a different collar than an 18" floor tom head, i.e. the roundness from the flat part of the head to the edge of the head is a different angle.

An 18" BD head is designed to work with a BD hoop, while an 18" floor tom head is designed to work with a regular metal hoop.

You can might be able to get one to work with the other, but they may not seat properly and be difficult to tune.