[COLOR="DarkRed"]What kind of heads are on it ?[/COLOR]

My kick is the one I'm not satisfied with. I have a coated Ambassador on the batter side and a coated Emperor on the resonant. Thanks

Switch them around so that the Emperor is the batter and the Ambassador is the resonant. If it rings too much that way, use a small felt strip on either side. Tune low.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]...what he said....

tune kinda low, tune kinda even front and back....

you probably won't have to get to the point of felting the res head..but the batter...likely.

Also, do you have a Falam patch for the beater ? That will add a lot of attack to the strike and make it less 'wet' sounding.

That's why all the companies make those heads with various sorta muffling edges/rings.

Vintage thin shells are resonant enough to begin with...so the bigger the bass drum gets....the more you need to reel in the 'boing"....

A lotta folks have good things to say about Aquarian SK-1's and II's. I also like Coated Powerstroke 3's...[/COLOR]

Super kick II 's here ....the "matched set"

Same advice here on the tuning

Superkick II's all the way, but don't cheap out. Get the Regulator reso head to go with it. I prefer the look of a white, coated head on the front of my kicks, but I go for sound over looks so...

Tune the batter just above the "wrinkle" stage and the reso a half/whole note higher. KerPow!! Bring them both up a note or two and get a more 70's sound. Go up another note or two and you have a slightly muffled jazz sound.

Cool thing about these heads is you don't need any extra muffling. They do away with the felt strips, external mufflers, etc...

Just my $0.02

How do they sound on an 18" kick?

[COLOR="DarkRed"]If folks haven't tried the Aquarian Superkicks, they should...at least once.

They are the best pre-muffled bass heads available. I don't 100% agree that you need the "package deal" (i.e. the resonant head as well).

They work well on 18's. they even make a 16" one, which is unusual for a company to offer a dedicated 16" bass head.

SK II (2-ply) are the standard...although at times due to stock I have used SKI's (single ply) and they are almost as good, just a tad bouncier.

[COLOR="Sienna"]To play devil's advocate...the common criticism of them is that they kill the sound a bit too much...that there isn't enough decay to them. That is a valid observation, and it carries some truth...but for a vintage thin shell, it's not a problem usually.

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Whenever I sell a rehab with a (sonically) problematic bass drum...I always reach for the SK's...because when customers try the bass out...they always end up saying:

"wow...I didn't think the bass would sound this good on a __________ kit !"

And I end up looking like a magician.electricit[/COLOR]

No idea how they sound on the 18" kicks as the smallest I have is a 20". I imagine they sound great on pretty much any drum, assuming you are not looking for the uber-open jazz sound.

A friend and drummer came to a gig I recently played where I was using my new/old red sparkle Kent set. It's the 20" kick with a SK II and regulator reso. He was about as far away from the band as you could get in this particular room (maybe 60 - 80 feet away) and in his own words "I thought you were micing the kick until I walked by the stage and saw that you weren't". He thought the kick sound was great and it projected very well through a crowded, noisy room.

So there you go. Like I said, they don't work for every situation, but if you're looking for something which fits well into the rock, blues, country, etc... you can't "beat" them :)