What's your bass drum setup?

Just curious... how do folks have their bass drums set up and for what kind of playingmusic?

I just picked up a Vater Vintage Bomb Beater. It's on my 22x14 Rogers with coated Ambassader (batter) and Power Stroke 3 Ebony (front) with 5" hole, and only a pillow case for damping.

I love it! It gives this drum a warm round tone, with a subtle attack. Feathering is a breeze, and those accents really are like dropping bombs. I can't wait to get an 18" and try it on that.

For perspective, I have used the DW's 2 sided felt & hard plastic beater for 10 years. In a similar application, I would use the felt side directly on the head. For rock, I would use the plastic side with a Remo patch.

I'm just using the standard bass drum that came with my new kit. It's a Gretsch Catalina Club Mod 22''x20". It's gotta a Coated resonant head and I put an Evans E-Mad on it. That's the only muffling I really use. I'm still contimplating porting the resonant head, but I'm pretty happy with the sound that I'm getting right now. Deep open sound, kinda like Gary Novak on the Chick Corea album "Paint the World." Check this album out if you get the chance! I believe it's disontinued, but it's absolutely amazing.

On my main set I have 2 bass's (22 x 18) set up with DW5002's with the plastic beater. Evans Emad2's with 2.75" foam ring in it. And evan's impact pads. Stock black Pearl logo resonant head. Maybe putting a 4" hole in the bottom rights of the resonants soon.

Secondary set - 1 bass(22 x 16) set up with a Pearl P-100 pedal felt beater. Ahead 2 ply batter head and an old Pearl style resonant head.

Comming soon my custom 20 x 18 set up with a DW7002 double pedal. Evan's Emad 1 or 2 with impact pad. Some cheap new rosonant head with a 5" hole.

Mostly play 80's rock/metal, but dabble lightly in jazz and samba.

I've got the Gretsch Mod kit as well. It's a massive cannon of a bass drum. I've got the stock heads on it right now, except with a Gibraltar patch on it for a bit more click. I have to port the front head because of the speed I play with one of my bands -- playing heel-toe stuff really quickly means the rebound off a non-ported head {censored}s me up bad.

My other kit has stock heads but is triggered, and is filled with two Ryder moving blankets and about six feet of eggcrate foam balled up into it. The drum itself has no bass to it, you just hit the head and hear a "thud", and it's quiet as hell... which works great when you're triggering. It's like hitting a wooden slab. No bounce, no nothing. That also means if we play a show that requires it to be quieter, it's not as big of a problem... either just turn the trigger down or don't use it at all!

22"x16" (Tama Swingstar)

Aquarian Superkick 2 on the batter with Remo Kick Pad,

Stock Tama Reso head with a 5" hole

Iron Cobra Powerglide (double) with wooden beaters

Not sure how else to describe the sound other than "subwoofer"or "canon"

I use it for everything I play, I used to play in a function band where we had everything from motown, funk, current day pop (Pink, Kelly Clarkson etc)

When I play in my band though I trigger the bass drum (extreme metal)

wow... i havent been here in a long-ass time! n e way.. my bass drum setup is evans eq2 batter, an evans EMAD resonant head, a danmar double metal click pad, and duct-taped plastic beaters (to keep the plasic frm rattling) yhea... im gonna take the click pad off and put an aquarian double pad on there, and then get some danmar reds!!

I have a 24" bass with DW5000 double, wraped on one side with EMAD and a Rocker silver dot sprayed black on the other. No muffling and it is earth shaking.

I use 22" kicks with whatever head is cheapest when I go to buy them. I have a single pillow in each and I use Falam Slam Patches. I trigger my kicks, so pretty much none of that matters.

14" x 24" Rogers Big R.

Iron Cobra jr.

Powerstroke 3 and don't know what's on the reso side, aside from a 10" hole the previous owner cut into the head, dead center.

Yamaha Stage Custom 22x17s. One has a Pinstripe Powerstroke batter, the other has the stock Powerstroke single-ply.

The Pinstripe is tuned low, the single-ply approximately a fifth higher. The Pinstripe is my main (left). It has a double pedal attached to it. It allows me different tones on bassdrum. I'm trying to work out a way to put a double pedal on the right side too, but I haven't figured it out yet.

There's no muffling on either drum. They don't need it - they sound like cannons. I'm becoming tempted to port the res heads since I don't have enough time in my life to sufficiently practice rebound control. I'm OK usually, but sometimes I lose it on intricate patterns on left foot (can't use the double when you also have to play hihat).

18" x 22" Spaun kick drum (Birch).

Stock Spaun heads w/5" hole in the reso.

Spaun pillow for muffling.

Iron Cobra Double

Very focused cannon shot.

I'm really suprised to see so many BD without holes in the reso head. It's true, you get a very rich tone out of the drum that way, but do sound guys hate you?

Oh, and AbbeSauniere, I feel sorry for you with that 10" hole in the center.

Zeromus-X

yeah, I played a Simmons SDS 7 for a while. That was a wooden slab! I'm glad that's all over with now.

That's the great thing about triggers. Like I mentioned in another thread, I went through my kick drum head at a show and stuck the dot trigger to the bottom of my shoe with a piece of duct tape. Finished out the show and none of the drunks in the crowd knew the difference.

Now that I've got my new kit I want to get a kick mic, but man, the triggers are just SO convenient.

that's awesome!

I always wanted to do a show with four dots on my shoes... one in front and one in back of each shoe... can you imagine the "double kick" you could pull off with that? And nobody would ever know.

yup, that won't happen with a Simmons pad. (although, you'll get tendonitis in your knee for that kind of security)

I've got another 14x24 on the way with a full reso head.

I'm pretty much positive that I'd be faster on my pedals... but it's still awesome that you pulled off a show with one on your foot.

Isn't that tap dancing?

Actually, That reminds me of a guy I saw who put triggers on a suit and hit himself! His big "drum solo" was rolling around on the floor!

Congratulations. You have invented Triggered Tap Dancing.

In other news,

I have a quadruple kick setup. The primary is a 14x22 Tama Swingstar: pinstripe/ Tama resonator, hole at 5 o'clock, towels on the bottom, then 8 feet to the left a 16x22 keller shell w 45 degree edges still in the shipping carton, then 25 feet to the right a 5 lug 14x22: pinstripe/ original resonator, hole at 5 o'clock. towels on the bottom, surrounded by cardbooard cartons, then another 10 feet diagonally a 14x 20 thing from Japan courtesy of Aldens: no heads or front lugs.

Well I'm not exactly playing at the speed that you're playing, either.

I have 2x 22"x18" Pearl Export bass drums. The Reso heads are stock Pearls with 6" holes cut in the center. The batter heads are Remo Powerstroke 3s. I have 2 Iron Cobra Power Glides for pedals.

22"x17" Yamaha Stage Custom BD. Stock "Powerstoke 3" type batter with full logo type front head. With Remo ring control "Mufflr" on beater.

I also have pillow and small blanket inside with rolled up towel and foam sheet accross front of bass but only for noise control in my drum room. I take these last things off at gigs and such. Have cannon like sound but with a little "fatness" to it. Hope this helps