18" Kick Drum Head

Kothlow

Kothlow

Senior Member
I have an 18" kick with stock tama heads, and can't tweak the sound I'm going for. Before I get into it, I play mostly rock.. I know I know, get a bigger bass drum. I have a 22x20 kick I play out, but for practice I bought this little tama kit, 18x14/10x8/13x11.

I really don't expect this to ever live up to my 22" as far as rock sound goes, but do you guys have any suggestions as to what head/heads I should use to get the biggest rock sound possible? I have exhausted all tuning posibilities as well.
 
Clear or Coated Emperor batter side, Ambassador on the resonant. Muffle to your desire.

I find the smaller 16 or 18" kicks need 2 ply un-muffled heads in order to get some "meat" out of them. This of course isn't preferred by the jazz folks that want the most open drums ever. If in a funk or rock situation, taming the drum and getting more low end depth is wanted.

You could use any combination of 2 ply and 1 ply heads.

Clear, Coated, Ebony, Black Suede, Fiberskyn, Suede, Renaissance, Smooth White, etc...
 
Aquarian makes the Super-Kick I, II, and III heads in 16 thru 28", You don't need anything else! Go for it! They are the best bass drum heads that I have ever played! The older they get, the better they sound. I have a 20" SKI and A 22" SKII. I can't kill these heads!!! I've tried! LOL. http://www.aquariandrumheads.com/products/display.asp?id=11
 
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The 18" kick with the stock head kind of grew on me for the time being, maybe it just takes some getting used to. When I get the money I'm going to try an skII I think.

Thanks for the advice
 
I play an Evans Emad single ply clear on my 18" Gretsch Cat Jazz kick and it sounds thumpy and rocks.

I use the smaller muffle ring and I don't even have the reso ported and I get a great rock sound out of the drum.

Try that or the Emad 2 ply. As soon as I wear this one out I'm going to try the 2 ply.

It should do the trick.
 
I prefer the sound I get from a one-ply head (clear Ambassador currently) on my 18" kick, but I can see the need for a two-ply for more depth. I use a SuperKick II on my 22" kick. Great head. If it has the same effect on a smaller drum, I'd go for it.
 
On my 18X14 Pearl kick, I'm using a Remo Fiberskyn 1-ply on the batter side and a coated ambassador on the resonant side. The only muflling I'm using is a small towel stuffed between the bass drum pedal and the batter head. It's a simple technique that balances the sound of the drum nicely. It even works on large kicks; I believe Karl Crafton does the same thing with his 26" drum!
 
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