If I don't have a pre dampened head on either side I use a fat felt strip on the opposite of both sides. Some of my kicks have a Aquarian Super kick one on the batter and a smooth white head on the reso with a felt strip. You can get a sheet of felt from WalMart for under $5. And cut your own strips. If I don't have a extra pair of hands I will tape the felt strip in place then place the head on, then the hoop and tighten accordingly. The strip should be flush against the head. That's how I do it anyway. Some people put the strip diagonally on the bottom half or vertically on the side.

Yes, I found it a challenge to install by myself. Never thought of tape. Genius. Thankyou. I will try this out.

I use a Powerstroke batter and an Aquarian Modern Vintage reso, with a felt strip on the reso.

I just pulled it snug as best I could and let the tension rods take care of the rest. I don't think it's possible to get it too tight, because the pressure of the head against the bearing edge can only hold it so tight anyway.

I much prefer the sound and the look to my previous efforts with putting bedding and laundry inside the drum.

I found that for recording, just miking the batter head captures the right amount of thump, and the felt-muffled front head sounds good for the room sound.

I have gone back to the original felt strip set up on my vintage kits. I use the original narrower style felts and place them vertically. I position them depending on how much muffling or control I want. I always use one on the batter. Depending on the room I am playing, I may or may not use one on the resonant head.

No problems installing. Just position under the head, put a little tension on the head by tightening the hoop, pull the felt tight, finish tensioning the head.

Despite all the modern heads with built-in dampening, I have always used a simple felt strip for muffling the reso head of my basses because that's how Rogers did it. I want my vintage basses to sound as Rogers intended, not like some new DW bass (not that there's anything wrong with the sound of those deep modern basses; I like 'em)

For materials, I use either a plain white strip of felt from the local fabric store or a thicker felt which the saleswoman said is used inside quilts. I think it's called bunting. It's really cheap, just like me. I stretch it tight vertically across the front head about 1/4 the diameter from the left, just as the factory did (pic below). Stretching it vertically rather than horizontally ensures that it cannot sag away from the head surface if it's not perfectly tight. After it's mounted, I trim away any excess sticking out. Just my :2Cents:, but it works for me.

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Mike

I use original heads on my vintage Ludwig bass drums. I use a felt strip on the batter head mounted horizontally well down below the beater area. gives me the sound that I am looking for in the bass drum. prior to this, I used the same heads with the externally mounted muffler which I also liked.

mike

This might be kind of off-topic, but I recently started playing a vintage 26, and am currently dealing with beater-buzz (I bury the beater when I play, a bad habit I can't seem to shake). I didn't really have this problem on my 24 or 22 or 20 inch bass drums. It seems like the bigger heads 'flop' around more, making me sound like I'm trying to add notes that I'm not trying to add.

Will a felt strip help with beater-buzz? Or is it only good for muffling?

I have a 12x22 WFL bass drum. Still has a positively ancient Ludwig Weather Master on the reso (was on there when I got the drums used in 1965), and a PS3 on the batter. that I put on about 7 months ago. Use felt strips both fore and aft, about a third of the way in.

Absolutely kills!

I use a felt strip on the batter head mounted horizontally about 1/4 of the way up with Remo Ambassador heads on both batter and resonant sides . I am actually thinking about removing it altogether . I like big open sounding drums .