Forgot to mention that when I was using the felt strips, I had them on both heads, off center. I'm not sure I like the idea of the felt strip for a few reasons, although I know that drummers have been using them forever. I feel like (A) They keep the heads from seating properly and (B) may even cause undue stress on the shell or hoop.
I have no scientific data to back this up by the way, it just seems well... wrong.
Keep us posted!!
Well I tried the felt pads and took the felt strip off. Not to bad, warm and resonant. I will keep messing with the tuning before I plunk down the cake on a new Aquarian. My new problem is the height at wich the beater hits the head. This being an 18" it hits fairly high. The kit came with a riser but the beater hits the hoop when I use it. It also puts the rack tom higher than I like it so I am not using it at this time. Anybody have any input on this issue? Thanks again
Lucky
Doesn't your pedal allow you to adjust the positioning (height) of the pedal's shaft?
The beater is adjustable but when it is pretty close to the center of the head the bottom end of the shaft hits the head. I have been messing with it, changeing the settings so that the beater isn't at a sharper angle and it is better but now I am not sure if I like the way it plays. I should just get a new beater exclusively for this drum and cut the shaft. "Eureka"
I know your pain!Burger Kin
It's kind of the caveat with all small bass drums. I actually gig with a 14" tom tom set into a cradle. I had to engineer it so that the bass pedal sits back a bit ****her than it would normally if it were to be clamped onto a regular bass drum wood hoop so that it doesn't hit the rim. I use a Tama Iron Cobra shaft and beater with a DW 5000 Turbo pedal with the footplate. The IC beater head has an adjustment that allows me to compensate for the increased angle of the shaft-to-drumhead relationship so that it makes full flat contact with the head.
It's always a "Rob Peter to pay Paul" kind of scenario. In other words, you switch one thing and it just transfers the problem to another area. I don't have the problem of the shaft knocking into the wood hoop as you have described, but I can see how it would happen. Honestly, you might consider getting some lower profile wood hoops made....or, possibly notching out a place in the hoop (which I would only recommend doing with a new 18" hoop because a vintage 18" hoop is too precious!)
My solution for 18" bass drums is to just accept the beater hitting higher on the head. The sound of an 18" bass drum just isn't going to provide the fuller-spectrum sound of a 20" or a 22" bass drum. The 18" is kind of a "special" animal.
You are right on with that one, an 18" is a different animal and should be treated like such. Kind of why you have more than one snare, each one has its own voice. Its funny, I have a dw 5000 turbo also that I don't use much, have been using a dw 9000. But I was messing around this morning with the 5000 and noticed the way I have it set up would work better with the 18". I think I will make that a designated pedal for this kit. Playing a private party on Sat. with an acoustic trio and want to debut this kit. Got to get all the bugs worked out before then. Thanks again for all the input
Lucky
I picked up an old Ludwig Junior Pedal for $9.45 on ebay... strikes the bass drum at 9" and seems like a pretty solid little pedal... It's certainly not a DW5000 turbo... but it won't take up much room. ;)
sure is hard to switch back to that old school stuff. Gave away a speedking to a friend of mine as an xmas present. He loves it and I would swear by it, until I got that dw! Long live the "Squeak king"
