Jankowske
Senior Member
So I've seen bass drums that that already have a big ol' vent, but I have yet to see any information on someone doing it themselves to a perfectly good bass drum. I dig those Kumu drums, and I saw an old picture posted by Bermuda with a more oblong hole-thing, but yeah. Nothing on how to do-it-yourself so far.
But WHY would I want to do such a thing, you ask? Here's my reasoning. This piece of junk kickport thing I have actually works with my kick, sort of. It's cool and all that it does all that tasty sub-bass stuff, but what's not so cool is how much it weighs and that it needs to be attached to my reso head. As if a giant hole in the head doesn't mess it up enough, then wedge a heavy chunk of plastic in there. And I liked my fiberskyn head before I cut a big hole in it. I liked it less so after I cut the big hole in it.
Also I tend to bury the beater most of the time and I have little love for rebound, so I prefer the feel of a vented bass. And a big hole is handy for pillows and mics and whatever else I need to reach in there for. So here I am wanting an intact reso and a big hole.
I'm thinking that a kickport would work the same way mounted on the shell as it would on the drumhead. Probably better. And I know that drilling shells is anathema to most, but I think that a nice, rigid, medium-thickness maple shell would suffer less from a 5" hole than a flimsy mylar diaphragm meant to be under even tension. I'd probably have to soften up the kickport with a heat gun or something to get the flange to conform to the radius of the drum, since I'm pretty sure it needs some sort of baffle to work. And I could do away with the horrible rubber foreskin and foam gasket by securing it with silicone caulk. I plan on doing this somewhere mid-shell, maybe closer to the reso, and somewhere between the side and the bottom of the shell so that it's sort of pointing towards the floor. Something about bass reflection makes me think it'd be more efficient there.
So has anyone else done this? At least the hole-cutting part? Because that's what I'm stuck on. I think my biggest hole saw is like 4". I'm not too bad freehanding with a router, though. Also, the only other thing really hanging me up is that I really, really like my drums, and busting a giant hole in the most expensive one sounds a little sketchy even to me. I do have another kick or two to try it out on, but they have different dimensions, so I'm not sure how helpful it would be to destroy them as well.
Any ideas/advice/vehement discouragement is welcome. Thanks!
But WHY would I want to do such a thing, you ask? Here's my reasoning. This piece of junk kickport thing I have actually works with my kick, sort of. It's cool and all that it does all that tasty sub-bass stuff, but what's not so cool is how much it weighs and that it needs to be attached to my reso head. As if a giant hole in the head doesn't mess it up enough, then wedge a heavy chunk of plastic in there. And I liked my fiberskyn head before I cut a big hole in it. I liked it less so after I cut the big hole in it.
Also I tend to bury the beater most of the time and I have little love for rebound, so I prefer the feel of a vented bass. And a big hole is handy for pillows and mics and whatever else I need to reach in there for. So here I am wanting an intact reso and a big hole.
I'm thinking that a kickport would work the same way mounted on the shell as it would on the drumhead. Probably better. And I know that drilling shells is anathema to most, but I think that a nice, rigid, medium-thickness maple shell would suffer less from a 5" hole than a flimsy mylar diaphragm meant to be under even tension. I'd probably have to soften up the kickport with a heat gun or something to get the flange to conform to the radius of the drum, since I'm pretty sure it needs some sort of baffle to work. And I could do away with the horrible rubber foreskin and foam gasket by securing it with silicone caulk. I plan on doing this somewhere mid-shell, maybe closer to the reso, and somewhere between the side and the bottom of the shell so that it's sort of pointing towards the floor. Something about bass reflection makes me think it'd be more efficient there.
So has anyone else done this? At least the hole-cutting part? Because that's what I'm stuck on. I think my biggest hole saw is like 4". I'm not too bad freehanding with a router, though. Also, the only other thing really hanging me up is that I really, really like my drums, and busting a giant hole in the most expensive one sounds a little sketchy even to me. I do have another kick or two to try it out on, but they have different dimensions, so I'm not sure how helpful it would be to destroy them as well.
Any ideas/advice/vehement discouragement is welcome. Thanks!