Bass drum head with no collar

Hello all,

I need to find a head for a 40" bass drum that has no collar. I know some companies make heads with no collars for various reasons (at least one being older drums that aren't sized right).

My school has an old slingerland concert bass drum. We are trying to replace the heads and make fixes and the like because it hasn't been done in well over a decade (the current heads on this drum are Fiberskyn 2s...). What we noticed is that nothing is really lining up right between the drum and the heads. What I think is going on is that the shell is a little undersized (39.5") and the hoop, being older, is significantly under sized compared to modern drums. My thought process was to find a head with no collar for a 40" bass drum, replace the hoop, and adjust the lugs with spacers to make everything line up right. My professor was leaning on buying a whole new drum, which seems like over kill if I can just find the right heads.

What you're describing reminds me of Ludwig heads. They have a very shallow collar, compared to standard Remo/Evans, and the nature of the way the mylar exits their crimped flesh hoops lets undersized counter hoops sit better on the flesh hoop.

With that said, 39.5" is pretty largely undersized, and I don't know if a Ludwig head would at all work for you, but it does look like they make them: http://drumsonsale.com/product.php?id_product=8991&gclid=CJG6ssPv3bQCFYLd4Aod3SUA7Q

Sounds like a Ludwig bass drum head would work.
Their bass drum heads have basically no collar on them, so that undersized shells edge will sit on a flatter head surface, and an edge angle on the mylar isn't going to screw up trying to tune it.

I use, and like their bass drum heads.

The Smooth will have a bit more open tone, and the "usual" Concert bass drum sound.
The Ludwig SW film sound is a little different than Remo's. It a has a little more definition, and is not really as low pitched to my ear--which is good for a 40" drum.

A Heavy Coated would get a nice resonant sound, with even overtones. The overall pitch on the Coated is lower than SW, and the attack with a BD mallet will be softer.
It might be similar to the Fiberskyn, if you like that head.

Good luck!