The one head on my BD is a Remo Weather King CS Bass Drum. Have the same heads on my mounted toms. It's fairly clear.

I'm playing old country, so the BD part is pretty simple & just drives the tunes. Looks like I might have come across a used Slingerland head in the town next door on my local ad paper - and they only want $20 for two used heads. I'll check 'em out - may get me one step closer to getting this kit back complete.

As for the hole I see in many heads these days - how is that cut?

Another question: I put weatherstripping on the inside edge of my toms for a different sound. Is this same thing done on bass drums?

thanks

There are lots of different methods for cutting port holes, but be careful--it would be a shame to ruin a good head. You can buy a hole-cutting tool from www.drummaker.com. When I did mine, I simply asked the guy at the music shop to cut the hole when I bought the head. He did it for free.

The weatherstripping is an interesting idea. Remo does something similar for bass drums with their O-Ring system. It's basically a plastic tray that goes over the bearing edge and holds a foam ring around the circumference of the head. I have one on my Gretsch bass drum, and it sounds great. When I got my Ludwig bass drum together last year, I put a felt strip on it for lack of anything better around the house, and loved the sound.

There are plenty of ways to get a great bass drum tone. Have fun experimenting!

There are all sorts of different thoughts and methods when it comes to muffling bass drums. Some people like 'em wide open with no muffling whatsoever. Some people muffle the **** out of 'em to get a slappy thud sound. Some people use their own muffling materials while more and more people opt for pre-muffled heads like Evans EMADs, Aquarian SuperKicks, or Remo Powersonics.

Coincidentally, I'm using weatherstripping on my bass drum's batter head as sort of an "improvised EMAD". A real EMAD would be a super-tight fit on my 1955 Slingy, so I muffled an Aquarian American Vintage head similarly using weatherstripping foam.

I normally use a solid resonant head, but I keep a ported head handy if I need to swap 'em out. I used the hot can method to melt the port hole in the head. Heat up a tin can on your stove, then press it against the head. It'll melt right through, leaving a perfectly circular hole. You can find videos of people doing it on YouTube. Some of 'em aren't exactly rocket scientists, though, so be selective in what you choose to listen to!

thanks again for the tips. Hot Can method - who'd a thought? but it makes perfect sense. I'll check that out. I also saw on one YouTube video putting some type of ring in the port.

A drummer buddy of mine told me about the weatherstripping. He told me to come up to the underside of the tom heads and stick the weatherstripping right to the bottom of the head, pushing it against the sidewalls as firmly as I could. Gave me an interesting sound that I like, so wondered about it on the BD, too.

Will hopefully pick up these used heads tonight - one step closer - then on to securing the claws, bolts & a hoop.

thanks for the help.

I was trying to ignore the part about weatherstripping on the toms... I've seen it done a few times, never by an experienced player though, and I've NEVER heard it sound good. Toms are supposed to have some ring to them! But to each their own -- variety is the spice of life after all, right? ;)

If the drum never had a head on it, or it came from the factory that way leave it alone. There are plenty of double headed kick drums on the market.

I wasn't unhappy with my toms, but I like the sound with the weather stripping more - so we'll see how it plays out. It pulls off easy enough, too.

I don't know how mine came - I picked up the kit used - but it does have the fittings on it to screw the bolts in that hold the claws, so, I'm guessing it came with both heads at some point. Now my toms, neither of them came with any hardware on the bottom, though there are holes in the shells, so who knows. I guess it's one of those "if these drums could talk" stories.

Yeah, I've seen the weatherstripping on toms also. I never did like the sound, I like them to ring a bit... but, likes been said. To each...