Bass Dampening

[Smythe]

Hi there,

I just want to get a couple of opinions on which dampening works best.

My bass recently went to the Edinburgh military tattoo, I unfortunately, could not go with, some other @#$% messed it up a bit and I am busy "restoring" it.

I am going to put new dampening in, I've seen that a lot of grade one bands stick foam rings around the inside (what I am planning on doing), but are there any better ways of doing it?

Thanks

Matt

[Mike Cole]

Re: Bass Dampening

Hi Matt
Is the person who messed up your drum walking bowlegged now?
There are a few different methods out there for dampening a bass drum. The self-adhesive foam rings are effective. As far as other methods; there is the Hosbilt type system, developed by Craig Colquhoun. I put a PDF together a few years ago that outlines the 'how-to' on it for lug tensioned bass drums. Tuning tips
I prefer this dampening system because you only have to do it once...not every time you change heads. I guess I'm getting lazier as I mature. As far as how much dampening to use; it's trial and error; whatever gives you the sound you're looking for!
I've seen a variety of others ranging from felt strips stretched across the inside of the head; to pads taped to the inside of the heads. :humm:
All the best!

[Tenor Drummer]

Re: Bass Dampening

Hi , At the moment I think that the foam rings for bass & tenor are the easiest to work with, all you have to do is apply the sticky side of the velcro to the shell and attach the foam as close to the head as you need for the sound you are looking for. I spoke to a bass drummer from North of Scotland the other week, he'd spent weeks trying to set up a drum, he tried the foam rings and said he had the sound he was looking for that evening. The only drawback is that the heads don't need to be on as tight as other dampening methods, so the drum needs retuned more often than normal (I do ours on the day of each competition).

[Tenor Drummer]

Re: Bass Dampening

Nearly forgot, I get the damper rings we use on our bass and tenors from Kenny McCaskill at www.bassandtenor.com ,give him a shout and I'm sure he'll advise.

[Andrew H]

Re: Bass Dampening

We get quite a bit of success with a head made by Aquarian called the SuperKick. This head comes pre-muffled with a felt strip attached to head without screwing up the bearing edge by putting in one of those plastic trays. The pad is not attached 100% and so it also acts as a "gate" reducing overtones. It's a nice thick head so it can really take a good beating and get the whole shell reasonating. The band began using these with lots of success on the Pearl bass, then last year a set went on the Andante we were playing with incredible sound, and since I switched the band to Premiers in the fall we are loving the sound on that too!

In addition, Aquarian is now making the heads in 16", 18", & 20" as well, and if you ask I'm sure they'd make them in a 15" for the smaller tenors. I've always wanted to reduce the amount of work required to get a good tenor sound... these heads are the answer! Lots of body reasonating the whole shell, durable since they're actually bass heads (as Mr Cole mentioned in another thread), and absolutely amazing tone. Probably going to be trying these on some Andantes and Hosbilts with bands I teach right now so I can feed back with how that goes as we get into them.

[Ellen Bassett]

Re: Bass Dampening

Andrew - which Superkick are you using - I or III?
Thanks-
Ellen

[Andrew H]

Re: Bass Dampening

Ellen, it's the SK-I.

I'm not a big fan of anything with the extra dot in the middle. Reminds me of junior high marching band a little too much.

The band was already using the smooth clear model of the SK-I on the bass for over a year or so before I joined up and I decided to experiment with them on the tenors.

I had also thought that if I didn't get the sound I wanted with the smooth-clear that I would try the texture-coated model or the SK-II which is a 2-ply head. Also on my list of things to try were the Aquarian Impact series of head which are the same as the SK series but with a wider felt. My suspicion would be that it would be too much deadening and I ended up getting what I wanted right on the first try with the standard SK-I model.

[Smythe]

Re: Bass Dampening

Thanks for all the help, I appreciate your time and effort.

[bigboomer]

Re: Bass Dampening

our pearl bass is fitted with remo ambassador heads and remo muffle strips. the strips are affixed approximately one centimetre from the shell on both heads.

felt strips and foam crescents (as mike suggested) are also good suggestions. the tone of the LA Scots bass is pretty pleasant as well with those aquarian superkicks.

[Tullylagan Bass Drum]

Re: Bass Dampening

Just something you all might find amusing - I encouraged a work colleague to go to the Portrush competition while he was on holidays as he had never been to one.
On the Monday morning he was telling me how much he enjoyed it but said the one thing he found hard to believe was that so many bass drum heads had been busted during the competition.
I was amazed as I found it highly unusual for a bass head to burst, never mind five or six.
But he simply replied - "Well why did all the bass drums have this massive plasters on the heads covering up the holes then!"
Novice or what.

[bdmtb]

Re: Bass Dampening

Andrew,

You use the SK-1 as is without any other dampening?

[Andrew H]

Re: Bass Dampening

Correct, bdmtb. SK-1 on the bass and tenors (both top and bottom) with no other dampening.

As an observation, I judged at the games in Ventura, California both days this weekend. Of the 6 competing bands, only 2 did not use this head on the bass (and one of them borrowed my bass drummer's whole setup on the 2nd day). I'm not sure if it's because the head works so much as it's what we are doing in our band that they are seeing. But ... I got a little chuckle to myself watching each band come up to the line sporting various brands and age of drums but all with the same bass heads. ;-) (most of them sounding pretty good)

[bdmtb]

Re: Bass Dampening

Thanks for the quick reply Andrew.
This head seems to be the simplest answer to my dampening issues. I like to try stick to the k.i.s.s. rule whenever I can, it tends to lessen problems down the road, or at least make them easier to fix.
I'm a-gettin' the heads and removing my dysfunctional homestyle foam dampening. We'll see if we can start the same kind of "head" trend here on the east coast.

While I have you attention; any tuning tips?