dead bass drum heads?

Spectron

Spectron

Silver Member
Do bass drum heads wear out quick as in not gradual?

Recently my bass drum has become lifeless whereas I used to use muffling to control
excess boominess - now I run it wide open....
still a dead lifeless sound.

The emad I was using for a batter used to have a "tone" even with the small ring on.
Now dead....even without the ring it has more treble but the sustian is gone...if I tune it higher I just get a higher pitched dead sound...? It has about six month's of play on it.

I just wasn't expecting it to go dead so suddenly...anyone else experience this?
 
The chances of heads pulling out of the collar are pretty slim, nowadays, but still possible. That's probably not the reason. I used to notice bass drum heads going dead faster, too, but not any more. Do you "bury the beater"? My bass drum heads started to last longer when I stopped burying the beater and started playing with softer dynamics as well...at least, that's when I noticed they started lasting longer. If you play extremely loud/hard or bury the beater, you are putting more stress on the head than you would otherwise, and it will wear out faster.

If that's not the case, then there are other possibilities, like tension rods stripping, or maybe there's an issue with the resonant head, or worst-case scenario: bass drum splitting.

Most likely, though, is that there's just *something* that you're missing from the sound you hear in your mind. The head has worn out past a certain point, and you've just now noticed it. Been there, done that...
 
Budget an additional $40 for a new bass drum head every 3 months? Or maybe one month. Weekly if you gig alot. You be surprised how much money you save if you don't eat too many lunches!
 
Maybe a small hairline split around the edge of the head??? Had that happen a few times. The more you tighten it, the bigger it gets. Look for a loose area around the outside of the head
 
I tried an EMAD and noticed the same thing after not very many months. I am a pretty heavy player so maybe that had something to do with it. Then again, I went out to my garage and found an old PS3 and my bass drum came back to life.

I think I'll stick to my beloved PS3s.
 
I am a lead foot and it gets more so when I record because I'm playing over the serious volume of my phones...makes sense.

I experienced the same thing with the evans ec2's on toms - one day they just went dead...probably both cases of toms and kick it was probably like Caddy said and they
started going dead but I didn't notice right away then it hits you:
"my heads are completely dead"

I'm not even a metal guy - I do practice double bass...but mostly for the exercise LOL
do some double kick for 10 min straight - it's like jogging only more fun and much louder:)

Wouldn't it be great if they made heads that never wear out?
Of course, even if they could they never would.....

oh the simplicity of being a guitar player: new strings = $8
 
I use the EMAD as well and have noticed the same thing. I think I'll go for the GMAD next time and see if it lasts longer. Being that it's a thicker head, I think it should.
 
Do you have a hard beater? and a dent in the head?
Click to expand...

no I use a felt beater....there's slight dentage
if you look close you can see the dimple but it's not obvious

from the comments of some others here - I got decent longevity out of these batter heads. Got six month's out of the emad. If I was gigging in a band every weekend...
yikes - I'd probably be looking at new kick batter every month....
 
gee, I feel silly now....

My bass drum heads are not dead. I took off the front head and...BOOM plenty of sustain and tone from the batter. I was stunned to say the least.
Couldn't believe what I was hearing, where did all that tone go with a resonant head on?
It has to be the ported vs. unported thing.

I put a ported reso head on and the tone goes bye-bye. (the tone that I want to hear)

I put a solid coated ambassador reso on and BOOM the nice warm/full tone is back
although I did have to put some dampening in because that Ambassador is
seriously ringy...

I have this sound in my head of what my kick should sound like and it's just
not there (unmic'd) with a ported head.
 
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