Remo coated Emperor batter head

Remo Ambassador resonant head (smooth white or coated) with a felt strip run vertically

Tension medium-LOW

I use a SpeedKing pedal with a traditional hard felt beater

Gotta agree. Club date is Ludwig, right? I'm a Slingerland guy and use a 20" kick. I use Aquarian heads. But coated single ply heads with a felt strip sound best to me. Otherwise, you don't get any tone. Most drums today sound like crap IMO. The best approach is a simple, traditional single ply coated head in the brand of your choice. Keep lots of air moving inside the drum. Not too loose. You want the head to move musically and push air.

Edit: Emperor is 2 ply. I do this if I want to take some high end off. I personally prefer a more full range sound. All depends on what you're looking for and what kind of gigs you're playing. I find the high end is absorbed very quickly by the other instruments and becomes a moot point in a band situation. I find that single ply maintains maximum tone and volume for me. Sometimes I do use a 2-ply on my 14" floor tom for rockier gigs.

[SIZE="3"]I have a 65 clubdate. I used Remo powersonic on batter, Remo smooth white emperior w/felt strip, also use speedking w/hardfelt beater. Very sweet.....Joe[/SIZE]

Ok here goes....single ply, non-pre-muffled head of choice, coated or smooth white preferred, with a felt strip for muffling offcenter of the head. Tune until you get a musical sound rather than just a flimsy paper-like or a thuddy sound. Usually medium-tight. Add a moleskin pad on the batter head for beater impact protection and slight muffling effect. Use beater of choice, either hard felt or wood (preferred). Now tune the rest of the kit in a similar musical tone and go play your favorite Funk Brothers aka 60's Motown track and compare the sound of your kit to that one.....it should sound real close. That's the best sound for a 20" bass drum of any brand in my opinion. x-mas3

i agree with ludwig -dude that's about it ,now to add a bellows or not that's the trick for miking id think on the hole i dont use it but ive seen some and they sound great through a pa that way

Thanks everyone for your input. This will give me a few options to try out.

I am using two fabric strips (1 reso 1 batter) on my 20" bass with a small port hole in the front head.

Nice tone and punch to it without being dead and all thump.

Remo Ambassadors (smooth) front and back. I use a 1.5" felt strip on both sides. Medium-low tension on the batter side, a bit higher on the reso. No holes! Oh, and a fluffy wool beater.

-Jon