I see lots of references to putting felt or cotton or a sponge inside lugs. I've torn apart several drums and never seen anything but a spring inside a lug. Obviously nothing else is required so any material added must be simply an enhancement.
My question is: what is it enhancing? Does it filter out some of the overtones?
I have them in every one of my lugs,..it stops the parts inside from buzzing. It also keeps them from rusting by useing up the dead airspace.
not all lugs got some sort of insulation in the lugs. my signatures got foam in the lugs. with or with out them i realy dont think i would notice a change in sound. some will say yes and some will say no. i think even in the best of studio enviroment it still might be tough to hear any changes or enhancment
Well, since I'm getting gunh-ho in my old age, I'm going to start putting them in. Thanks, guys.
It's not so easy getting the felt to curve around the springs. I didn't take the springs out because they looked great plus it looked like a pain. But I now have felted lugs on the ol' Apollo.
It's real easy to remove and reinstall the springs. I use weatherstriping to wrap my springs.
Ditto on ease of removing springs. Since my first kit in '65, I've only played Slingerland. There always seemed to be one lug that would sympathetically buzz. Cotton balls took care of it; I remove the spring, put about half the cotton ball into the casing and put the spring back over the cotton, works everytime. Easy, cheap and good!
Regards
DonS
All the lugs in my vintage Star drums contain a felt-curled spring.
I did it like rolling a cigarette (although no longer smoking since > 21 years):
a square piece of thin felt with the length of the spring, rolling the spring into it so that the spring is covered outside all around afterwards, then putting it back into the lug.
Like Oddball and DonS stated: I would hate to hear that buzzing (and not knowing which of the lugs is the causer ...).
Ralf
I, too, wrap all my springs. I have had some drums come through that had a horrible buzz that we tracked down, after 4-5 hours of listening intently to the sound. I thought it was just loose parts, but it ended up the springs were buzzing inside the lugs. I use a cotton ball, unrolled, and get about 3 springs per ball. Very simple thing to do, and it can make a difference, especially in MIJ drums. I had a Ludwig kit last year that had some buzz. It was a 80s monster rock kit. The foam had dried out, so out comes the foam at refurb and in goes the cotton...the buzz was gone.
Do you fasten the felt somehow or does it just stay wrapped because of the tight space?
