PS3 vs Ambassador w/ felt (bass drum)

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Philaiy9

Junior Member
Hi all,
Would you say a Remo PS3 has a similar sound to an ambassador with a felt strip? Ideally I would do the Ambassador with felt (because that's what I know) but the only bass reso head with the vintage logo Ludwig offers is the PS3 (and I NEED the logo lol and don't want to use a decal). Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
So we are talking about the reso head, right? I've been using Amba with felt strip for ages, but I changed to ps3. Don't know exactly what you are looking for, but with the ps3 tuned a bit higher I achieve a pretty long sustain with a nice tone, so no complaints about it.

If I came into a situation where more ring was needed, I could still cut a piece off the dampening ring inside the drum to increase the sustain.
 
I ran my Brooklyns with Ambassador and felt strip for the first year. Sounded amazing, but just too much sustain still. PS3 lowered the tone and shortened the sustain just the right amount, and more versatile overall.
 
notvinnie said:
Felt strip between edge and head? No thanks. Get the Powerstroke 3.
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The way a lot of drum shops/techs/players set up felt strips now is to use packing tape to tape them to the head, so no more contact with the bearing edge.
 
harryconway said:
The way a lot of drum shops/techs/players set up felt strips now is to use packing tape to tape them to the head, so no more contact with the bearing edge.
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Not a bad idea, I might have to try that. Would save me the trouble of having to reposition it every time I take the head off.
 
Phil A. said:
Not a bad idea, I might have to try that. Would save me the trouble of having to reposition it every time I take the head off.
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The guys at Pro Drum in Hollywood turned me onto that. Works great.
 
harryconway said:
The way a lot of drum shops/techs/players set up felt strips now is to use packing tape to tape them to the head, so no more contact with the bearing edge.
Click to expand...
Precisely. No need to stretch a piece of felt over the bearing edges. For the last forty years I've placed two pieces of mylar tape , top and bottom perpendicular to, and across the felt strip, laid inside the drumhead and cut just short of the collar. This allows the bearing edge to touch the head evenly all the way around, while allowing the felt strip to float with the head when played, as it's only attached at the two opposite points.
 
Remo also makes the Felt Tone head which is a combination Powerstroke ring and a felt strip. Seems like that may be the best of both worlds in this instance.
 
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Winston_Wolf said:
Remo also makes the Felt Tone head which is a combination Powerstroke ring and a felt strip. Seems like that may be the best of both worlds in this instance.
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Try one of these, if you can. Peter Erskine made a nice video talking about the felt tone heads and it's like the felt-strip/head combination finally came into the 21st century.

Personally I've been sticking with PS3's for resonant front and batter heads. I get a nice sound with those. (Or the Evans EQ4's which is basically the same thing).

I've also taken a felt strip, and cut it, taping it to the head so it doesn't go over the bearing edge (a poor mans' Felt Tone) on a Evans '56 calf EQ4, and that works really well too.
 
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