20x20 maple bass drum has no tone with new heads?

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dzarren

Senior Member
I've got a 20x20 6 ply maple kick, keller shell, that sounded fantastic, but i thought it was time for new heads.

I had on it previously, an aquarian superkick 1 and an aquarian regulator whcih had a 4 inch hole


Under the recommendation of many, i got powerstroke 3.
I have a black suede PS3 on the batter and a ebony PS3 with a 5 inch port hole pre cut by remo.

the bass drum seems to lack all tone, even my sonor 503 kick, which i moved the old aquarian heads to sounds much better. with 5 year old aquarians!

The maple kick has no tone when it is struck lightly, if i feather it in some sorta jaszz comping style, its really clicky even with a felt beater and i just dont feel that low end i did with the superkick. I dont think the batter head is totally to blame,

I think maybe the 5 inch hole is letting out too much air and the drum is refusing to resonate.

When i strike it hard, it sounds a bit more like a bass drum but lacks the low end. does not lack any punch. but when struck light, sounds click and papery. Every PS3 ive ever heard i was always blown away you could get that sound acoustically with no micing. this does NOT sound like the sound i fell in love with.


is the hole to blame? Im contemplating getting a new head for the front, but i dont know if it will solve anything.

note:I never muffle anything, the bass drum is wide open. PS3 front and back with 5 inch port hole in front off to the side.
 
Clicky/papery sounds like one or both heads just isn't tuned high enough. Premuffled heads and super deep drums need to be tuned high (a lot higher than you'd think) to really get everything working.
 
a 1" change in port size doesn't seem like much but it makes a huge difference. i suspect even more so on a 20" drum.
 
JohnPloughman said:
You might have fixed what was not broken.
Click to expand...

well the tom heads were beyond their years and could be considered "broken" and i figured it just swap out the bass heads for some newbies as well!


I'll try cranking it up a bit see if it sounds a bit better, i just dont want it to go BOING after im done with tuning.
 
I woul be searching for a "sweet spot" for tuning that bass. I play an 18" kick, and I'll tune both heads a full turn past JAW, and then move the batter side around until I hear a nice, rich "dooong" that seems to emulate from the shell itself. I then tune the reso a fourth above that note. For the record, the bass drum will be tuned as low as possible while still delivering that full, organic tone.
I tune the toms sequentially up at musical intervals from there.
It could be that a different pitch structure among the tubs will bring things back to life.
Cheers.
 
They will need to be tuned higher...Keep in mind, when you add any coating, be it black sued or ebony, you are adding muffling on the entire head. The clear heads only have muffling around the edges to mitigate the sharp overtones.
 
ThumperJim said:
They will need to be tuned higher...Keep in mind, when you add any coating, be it black sued or ebony, you are adding muffling on the entire head. The clear heads only have muffling around the edges to mitigate the sharp overtones.
Click to expand...
Black suede ps3 is not what people had in mind when they recommended a PS3. A clear ps3 is what they were talking about. that is your problem.
 
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