What a difference

I have a Mapex Pro M kit. The kick, which until recently had a combo of a 22" Coated Ambassador and a Evans eq3. Just swapped the Ambassador for a Powerstroke 4 clear (not interested in using the falam patch thing that came with it) and it's seriously come alive now, so much boom and presence.

So why did I have Coated Ambassador on there? Well I thought that was the head my tutor used and his kick sounds incrediable however after moaning about mine to him he quickly corrected me on my mistake.

Well, a coated ambassador on the batter side of the bass drum was usually the only choice you had alot of years ago. I used to play one myself, but that was back in the days of using felt strips across both heads on the bass drum, and I managed to get a really good sound out of it. But only the audience heard it, you didn't hear while you were behind the drum playing it.

Kenny Aronoff said in an interview years ago (maybe 10 years?) that he was searching for a bass drum sound for the Mellencamp tour, and ended up using a white Ambassador on his bass drum. He had to put a new one on more often but that was the sound he was looking for. And don't forget Bonham played a 26" wide open with Ambassadors cranked up - I know he used black dots too, but that head was basically an Ambassador with a dot in the middle.

Nowadays they've developed bass drum heads that do such a good job and it's such a simple idea I wonder how come I didn't come up with it myself! An inner ring against the head? Whoda thunk?

Why don't you want to use the flam patch? It honestly helps protect the head.

well, currently the kick sounds so good at the moment and I've read that the falam patch will give a 'clicky' sound. I've also read that it can be a little bit of a pain to remove if I don't like it. Only problem is that my toms don't match the sound of the kick now.

Whenever I want to protect the beater spot on bass drum head, I still swear by and use Dr. Scholl's moleskin pads. $3 gets you two small sheets, and I can usually get at least 10 pads out of them. They're easy to get off if you don't like them, and they provide enough muffle to protect that spot.

It's an old-skool trick, and it still works. Falams? Nah...

Neil said:

well, currently the kick sounds so good at the moment

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good enough reason to not use a patch...

Neil said:

... the falam patch will give a 'clicky' sound.

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I don't know if I'd call it a "clicky" sound, but the falam will certainly "color" the kick sound. Patches will also change the "feel of the beater" ... sometimes they're a good thing ... and sometimes they're not.

I use some kind of protective patch on my bass drums except my newest. With it's bass drum I'm using a coated batter head with a powder puff beater. It sounds great and the beaters really easy on the head.

Dennis

in my case using a patch is a must , otherwise the head will last just a couple of months.

I don't like the clicky sound of most patches , so what you can do i to cut a circle of an old drum head and tape it to your head (this is an old school trick) or you can get an evas patch , evans have different patches some of them increase the attach and some reduce the attack

I have an Evans patch on my bass drum batter and have cut it down so that it is just bigger than the beater so it doesn't muffle the sound.

Bo Eder said:

And don't forget Bonham played a 26" wide open with Ambassadors cranked up

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Actually, Bonham played a coated emperor (two plies) on the batter side of his kick. The resonant side was a smooth white ambassador. The heads were tuned up a bit higher than usual, with the front head tuned up higher than the batter in order to give that big ol' kick drum some roundness and balls.