And what's all that about the strip interfering with the bearing edge?
Of course it interferes. Didn't seem to be a problem for Buddy Rich or all the other jazz greats, didn't seem to be a problem for Bonham, didn't seem to be a problem for thousands of drummers who used them before stuffing futons in the drum became popular. Some drummers even tamed floor toms with it.
Not a problem for lowly ol' me, either. ;-)
Since you can pick up felt so cheaply, why not experiment for yourself?
Someone standing a few feet in front of it told me it was loud. I compared it to my friend's sonor which was deeper (same diameter) and mine was louder and livier. Kick and snare are the loudest pieces on the kit.
Cool. I hadn't realized that you were using minimal muffling.
The trick imo is getting the front off the ground,
I bet you know this, but for others: make the bass drum
level off the ground, not aimed up. Tilted-up bass drums (that you see in ads) result in bending of the batter hoop, raising the pitch of the batter head and making the pitch unequal between the top and bottom of the head. This is not ideal for good bass drum sound. The easiest way to make the drum level is to install your pedal on the
front hoop and extend the spurs to meet the floor. Then reinstall the pedal on the batter hoop and you have a level bass drum, off the floor but with no bending of the batter hoop.
I want a coated P3 as a front head like you see on high-end sonor drums. It's thicker than EQ series and will sound less thin.
Looking in the remo catalogue, the coated P3 has double black rings. P3's without those rings only come in smooth white, suede and renaissance. So where do get the head that you see on the picture?
The PS3 is my favorite BD head. From what I can gather they only make coated PS3s without the stripe as logo heads for drum companies--Pearl uses them, too, on their higher-end kits.
The smooth white version is very good indeed.
BTW, a PS3 plus felt may be overkill. It is for me. I don't use felt with them. Most guys who use felt today use it on a plain single-ply head.