Many Ways to Skin a Cat? ...Or your Bass Drum?

Tell me about your bass drum strategy

  • Full reso, no dampening

    Votes: 13 22.8%

  • Full reso, felt strips

    Votes: 13 22.8%

  • Full reso, pillow or laundry

    Votes: 6 10.5%

  • Ported reso, no dampening

    Votes: 3 5.3%

  • Ported reso, felt strips

    Votes: 8 14.0%

  • Ported reso, pillow or laundry

    Votes: 24 42.1%

  • Something else... Tell us what

    Votes: 12 21.1%
  • Total voters
    57
Full single ply unmuffled, tuned slightly higher than batter, for jazz on my 18, 20 or 22.

Ported PS3 on 20 or 22 for blues/rock or praise/worship.
 
20x14…PS3 batter, Ambassador w/ felt strip reso, no port, no laundry
(My small Gretsch Cat Clubs with lauan shells. Primarily used for practice and lower volume playing at home.)

22x17…PS3 batter, PS3 reso, w/ 4” port, no laundry
(Yamaha SC kit. This kit lives at my guitar player’s house for jams/rehearsals.)

24x14…PS3 CS Black Dot batter, PS3 reso, no port, no laundry
(Recently acquired Ludwig Neusonic kit. The big, loud rock kit. Still experimenting with heads/muffling.)
 
Something Else was my choice.....................
Full reso, no other muffling on either head except the built in muffling on the head, like a Remo Powerstroke 3 or an Attack No Overtone. Always a coated reso (and batter). On smaller diameter bass drums (18" and 20"), I usually cut between 1/2" to 1" off the width of the muffling ring all the way around. That opens it up for my tastes. I like a full, warm and resonant bass drum sound that's controlled. I detest the cardboard box sound, where the sustain is .000001 nanoseconds. My bass drums are controlled (no basketball boing) but it still sustains between 1 and 2 seconds. Just right for me. I usually play quiter gigs where I am not miced. If I am miced and the sound engineer wants a little more muffling, I can always put a small bar towel on the front head. I used to be in a band with a female lead singer. She would put her purse against the head, and it was a perfect amount of muffling for a mic. Plus, she had access to all her stuff right there behind her!
 
When playing live: ported Evans EQ3 with Evans EQ Pad lightly touching it. Plus a weighted KickPro pillow, not touching any head. Evans EQ4 batter head without anything touching it.

When recording: Same as above but with an Evans EQ Pad against the batter head to tighten/shorten resonance.

Note: I rebound the beater, I don't bury it.

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(Mmmm sexy bubinga shell)
 
Got a question, folks...what makes these special bass drum pillows a better choice than some random pillow?
 
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well for one you're not taking a pillow away from anyone
you're buying one just for your little drummies
could even have it initialed
 
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JimmyM said:
Got a question, folks...what makes these special bass drum pillows a better choice than some random pillow?
Click to expand...
Great question, @JimmyM! In my case, the DW pillows came in the bass drums when I bought ‘em, making it real easy for my lazy a$$ to just leave the pillows in.
 
20" bass with PS3 clear batter and ported Amb. reso; no muffling strips or pillows, etc. I practice a variety of genres but CCM for my gig. I play heel up or heel down depending on the music; sometimes I bury the beater, other times I don't... it's situational based on what I'm playing. My home kit stays at home for practice since I play Roland V-drums house kit on Sundays.
 
I place a little hand towel against the base of the batter head. It just tucks right underneath the pedal. The only reason I do this is I heard of another jazz drummer doing it and it easily solved my issue, which is that I like it full open sometimes, but not always. I used to use a felt strip, but that is a pain to swap out.
 
Ported with nothing in it. But I always take a small and light blanket to put inside, just in case.
 
well back in 1971-1973 ..

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"when I was 17"...
my second 1st new drum set
 
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"I like how you think"
 
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I have a Mapex Saturn 22x18 bass drum. I prefer to use Evans EQ3 batter heads and EQ1 reso heads with no hole and nothing inside. Peace and goodwill.
 
For me, coated PS3/PS4 batter and PS3 reso.

No porting or extra muffling necessary aside from maybe a felt strip if I'm using a PS3 batter on a larger drum.
 
doesn't a PS3 on front as reso quiet your bass to alarming "quietness?
Or muffling a bass resonant side generally- why would one want that- for the mic?
 
jda said:
doesn't a PS3 on front as reso quiet your bass to alarming "quietness?
Or muffling a bass resonant side generally- why would one want that- for the mic?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily for the mic. Some kind of muffling on the reso side keeps the head from sounding rumbly or flappy at lower tensions. It helps focus the tone of the head.
 
I play my kick drums wide open with a solid reso head. In a quiet room, they sound boomy and awful. Once the Marshal amps and ridiculous bass amps chime in, my boomy bass drums sound punchy, fat and deep.

I'm not a purist. I do keep a bass drum with a ported reso head on hand just in case.

18x22 Pearl Masters MCX
16x20 Pearl Music City Custom
17x20 Yamaha Stage Custom
16x20 Pearl Music City Custom
 
jda said:
doesn't a PS3 on front as reso quiet your bass to alarming "quietness?
Or muffling a bass resonant side generally- why would one want that- for the mic?
Click to expand...
Generally you don't want to muffle the reso side of a tom, but a bass drum can be too big, and an unmuffled reso side sounds like a gong.
 
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