Need help with a big problem with my Classic Maple bass drum (sound file included)

B

BConley

Junior Member
I have a 16x22 Ludwig Classic Maple bass drum that has been giving me a really hard time. It has a problem where it sort of has this sound to it that sounds similar to bouncing a basketball. It seems to be coming from the batter head. It's got a Powerstroke 3 batter with a muffling felt and EQ3 resonant on right now, but I've tried 2 different batter heads with the same issue. I've been playing almost 15 years, and am very experienced with tuning and haven't been able to find a tuning that sorts it out. There is one thing that works (kind of) which is putting a lot of muffling in the drum. However, I don't like a kick drum that is that muffled. I usually play my kick wide open, just because that's the sound I like and I've been playing unmic'd venues. While I understand that a very muffled kick drum is a desirable sound in a lot of cases, my only answer to that is I spent good money for an American made maple kit and I'm not going to settle for something I don't want, especially when I've never had this problem with any other high end drums.

Any help is sincerely appreciated, I really love these drums other than this very frustrating problem.
 

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Is the drum ported? I've heard this sort of thing in unported drums before. For that unported feel on a ported drum I recommend a KickPort. They're not for everyone it seems, but I sure like mine.
 
Based on the basketball analogy, I would guess either 1 or both of your heads are too tight. The more air you put in a basketball, the tighter the ball becomes, the more boing it has. Remove some air, the ball becomes less tight, the less boing it has.

Personally I would look at the reso head first, loosen it to JAW, and see if the boing goes away. If it does, slowly tune it up until you get that thud you desire. If this doesn't work, try it with the batter. If still nothing, punish it for not doing what you want.
 
I can't open your .wav file for some reason, but no matter, the solution is fairly simple. Those "basketball" overtones are errant high frequencies bouncing around the inside of your drum. Ok, tuning affects these to a degree, but they're still there at anything other than ultra low/sloppy tunings. Those errant high frequencies need interrupting, or soaking up. Place a small piece of high density rubber foam (e.g. neoprene) in the bottom of your bass drum. Usually, something around 12" square x 1" thick is more than sufficient. It doesn't need to touch the heads, & hardly affects the internal volume of the instrument. If you can't get hold of that material, any reasonably dense fabric will work well enough (felt, etc). To give you some mild head control flexibility at the same time, consider something like the Evans pillow as an alternative option.
 
Yes, what Andy said.

I had trouble finding the neoprene foam locally, so I used a towel rolled really tightly and then held together with adhesive backed velcro. Then the roll gets velcroed to the bottom of the bass drum. It doesn't touch either head. This removes the basketball sound whether mic'd internally w/no port, or when mic'd through a port.

BTW, my drum is the 24X16 Classic Maple.
 
Wow thank you guys very much. I will try and find some of that today. Is this problem common on any other drums? I couldn't find anything online (although it's a very difficult problem to describe). I just wonder why the CM has this problem, might be the bite from having the sharp bearing edge. Again thanks a bunch
 
It's not just CM drums, it can happen with any brand/style shell.
An issue with the PS3 head also (IMO), especially a clear PS3 (again, MO).

The piece of foam at the bottom of the shell is what I have done for many years.
It doesn't touch the heads, and I never have this issue occur--even with an otherwise basically wide open 16, 18, or 20" depth 26" bass drum with a Coated Ambassador batter.
 
I think it sounds great! Sort of a Tony Williams sound if you asked me. Sounds like the heads are tensioned pretty tight though.
 
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