I had my first custom set of drums...ply birch Eames...built in 1982. The next year, I lent them to a local drummer that was really hot at the time in my area. It was through him that I found a pivotal teacher, because I asked him where he learned to play so well. Anyway, I had this Eames bass drum built with no front head or lugs, to A save money, and B, I thought I would never want a different BD tone than a 1 headed weighted muffled bass drum tone lol.
Anyway, I visited this drummer friend I lent them to while he was using them on a gig because I wanted to hear what they sounded like with a great drummer playing them. To my horror, since there was no front head, I could clearly see that there was a completely bare CINDERBLOCK inside my bass drum, directly touching the once pristine urethane finish.
So after I got out of jail....
I still have that set, visually they are beat and scarred to hell but still completely useable. I'm saving them for a refinish/restoration project someday not soon which should be a blast. I had them built with 12/13/14 racks and a 15 floor, with a 22 x 15 BD. I'm really good with those sizes today and I will definitely be putting a front head on the bass drum when I do restore them. I used Gretsch lugs and it's finished in a color that looks a lot like Gretsch's walnut finish, so I guess I was going for the Gretsch look. I used an even amount of lugs on the racks because at the time I wasn't even aware of Gretsch's 5 lug rack tom thing. Those drums are coming up on 40 years old, so the wood is nice and dry and resonant. They were very precise shells when they were new. Maybe I'll restore them when they are 50.