I think the idea of placing rubber or plastic gaskets under the lugs and mounts has become a rather common practice on new drums these days. But....Why?

I think it has to do with the fact that newer drum shells are made to be slightly undersized so that the bearing edge makes better contact with the underside of the drumhead and permits easier tuning. Since nobody wants their lug screws to splay out, gaskets were cut to make up the difference of the undersized shell and allow the lug screws a straighter alignment. As we vintage guys know, lots of older drums (especially wrapped ones) were either right on the dimension or they were slightly OVER-sized....so when you went to put on a new head, you had to sometimes really force the issue!Chewie:

I don't really like the look of the gaskets and I also wonder if they might act like a series of shell "mutes" and work against the shell's natural resonant characteristics.

If that theory is true, then isn't it a trade-off? Is an undersized shell with gaskets really just an example of transferring the same problem of reduced resonance that also occurs in the case in an over-sized shell with lugs that are un-gasketed? Cooked Egg

Maybe higher-profile lugs without gaskets would be a better all-around solution...but die-casting new stuff is very expensive (from what I'm told). I guess it's easier to make a smaller shell, but then, to make the right lugs to compensate for it is much more difficult.