Interesting...

What brand and time period are your drums I love the way old school Luddy's work

Where are the reso heads tuned in relation to the Batter?

If they are loose, impact of the Batter will stretch them and as they come back they make an almost pitch bend effect. I have my blue kit tuned up this way. It tends to control the overtones as well. (Pin stripes on top and clear ambassador resonant)

The black kit I have coated ambassador heads and clear ambassador on the bottom. I tune them to the same pitch and get a very "pure" tone from the toms this way. Bordering on "ringy" but very jazzy.

If the bearing edges are messed up and/or the drums are out of round that can have some interesting, and generally undesirable, side effects...

Not sure how helpful that is for you.

The heads on the mounted tom ( Aquarian Vintage 2 coated/ Evans G-1)are tuned to the same note, which is usually around one full turn beyond just touching. It does create that "pitch bend" you are talking about, but also an after ring on the reso, without the moongel. I have seen concert video of drums with gaffer's tape on the reso heads, so this must be an issue with other people.

You could try going up an octave (if you can) or a third, fifth etc. something complimentary at a higher tension.

At one point on my 3ply ludwig I used vintage ambassadors top and bottom and it sounded pretty good. Currently I use regular ambassadors on all my kits both sides coated. I'm a big fan of that set up right now.

Using a coated head instead of a clear reso head may help tone those toms down a bit. Also you could try a black dot head on the reso side if coated isn't your bag. It will dampen the head slightly like the moongel does, but also focus it a bit more than the moongel would.

Then of course there's always the retro late 60's/70's method of taking the bottom heads off ala concert tom.......:p

I run this at up on the D-20 kit, except the bass Batter is a coated emperor. Sounds good, tunes easy up or down.

That's a cool idea- the dot reso heads. I think you can get clear with a clear dot too.

Point two- been there done that! But in my defense on that kit I has a mix of concert and double head toms... And to be clear, I am not suggesting it is/was a good idea!