Choosing a Bass Drum head for the first time.
I'm buying a new batter head for my bass drum for the first time and was wondering if you good folk could recommend a good head for me.
I've never bought or tuned a drum head before (the shop sorted out my snare and toms when I got my first kit second hand) so I don't really know where to start. My current head is quite dented and the beater has lost its felt and needs replacing too. My kick playing has recently improved and I'm doing a lot more controlled heal down playing with faster double beats, as opposed to stamping a full leg heal up four on the floor, so I'm a lot more conscious of the kick response.
The drum is a Pearl forum 22", with a standard Pearl single kick pedal. I have a pillow in the bottom for damping, it used to be a huge duvet (came with the kit), but I took that out as it was pushing on the head and killing the rebound and feel of the drum.
I don't gig and only play in a (very) small practise room, so looks, volume and projection aren't really important to me.
In terms of sound, I play mostly rock and my impression is that a flatter 'thumping' sound will suit more than the more musical 'tom' sound that the drum has picked up since I changed the damping material.
I'd like something that's fairly easy to tune, as I've no experience at all with this and need to learn! I'd also like to set it up so the bounce is good, to help with faster playing.
Any advice? Or any other factors I should be thinking about in order to choose? I'm new to doing this and keen to learn (I can't be paying the shop to tune my drums for me forever!), so all advice appreciated.
You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common:
they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views,
which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.
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