NON-muffled bass drum heads? They exist?!?

Moldy

Silver Member
Shocker to me too, I know!

I have no experience with any good non muffled bass drum heads (I don't count stock heads), so I wanted to ask the opinions of anyone whose used them, and for what style of music. I was considering testing the water a bit and swapping out my Super Kick II for a 22" G2 coated bass head.

Oh, and if you had a video/recording, that'd be super awesome too!
 
I use PS3s, which only have a perimeter ring made of head material. Takes out the boing but lets it resonate. Wouldn't use anything else.

Lots of guys use unmuffled fibreskyns or things like Ambassadors (with or without a felt strip).

Then there's unmuffled 2-ply heads, which will be a little more muffled than single-plies.
 
As I said in another place on this forum, if you play mostly rock music and are going to stuff a pillow inside the bass drum, then there's no point in buying a pre-muffled head. However, if you like to play the bass drum with nothing inside, heads such as the EMAD and Super Kick can come in handy.
 
Bass heads were un-muffled for decades. Of course back then they had those handy muffler pads either inside the shell or clamped to the hoops that could be adjusted at any time for a change in sound. I personally don't plan on ever buying another pre-muffled head for any drum as I'm tired of the lack of potential for musical expression. Now if you are one of those people who think a drum just makes one sound then these will work for you. I think internal/external dampeners or Moon Gels are fine for say a small venue or a special effect though. My favorite is a more open sounding bass drum played with a softer beater. This allows for you to change the sound depending on how you play and not how the drum is adjusted. If you bounce the beater off the head you get a loud open boom and if you play into the head you get a short thump. This way, you can have multiple bass drum sounds throughout a song. You also get a much more broad dynamic range as well with open heads. Fixed muffling limits the soft sounds as well as the extreme loud ones. The tuning range is also increased as well as there is nothing to inhibit the resonance at low tensions or to choke it on high tensions.
 
Bass heads were un-muffled for decades. Of course back then they had those handy muffler pads either inside the shell or clamped to the hoops that could be adjusted at any time for a change in sound. I personally don't plan on ever buying another pre-muffled head for any drum as I'm tired of the lack of potential for musical expression. Now if you are one of those people who think a drum just makes one sound then these will work for you. I think internal/external dampeners or Moon Gels are fine for say a small venue or a special effect though. My favorite is a more open sounding bass drum played with a softer beater. This allows for you to change the sound depending on how you play and not how the drum is adjusted. If you bounce the beater off the head you get a loud open boom and if you play into the head you get a short thump. This way, you can have multiple bass drum sounds throughout a song. You also get a much more broad dynamic range as well with open heads. Fixed muffling limits the soft sounds as well as the extreme loud ones. The tuning range is also increased as well as there is nothing to inhibit the resonance at low tensions or to choke it on high tensions.

Great points. It's also essential to note that the requirements for playing miked are different than playing unmiked. Muffled drums can sound good under the mikes, but will never carry when unmiked.

For drums to cut through unmiked you need a lively sound and more sustain than you might go for otherwise. Using unmuffled heads and tuning batter and reso to the same pitch helps toms to cut through. Muffled snares sound soft and dead from the audience--let them ring. Bass drums need to boom and have sustain to be heard.

The audience doesn't hear all that sustain you hear from behind the kit, but they do hear louder drums. It's a useful experiment to listen to your drums from 20-30' away in a venue-sized room. That snare ring that drives you crazy from behind the kit disappears, leaving a lively snare sound rather than dead.

I don't play much loud stuff anymore, but my kid plays in a (rather loud!) rock band, almost always unmiked. His drums sound plenty loud, and lively too.
 
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