Dampening a Drumkit

[Farview]

The bottom heads will last a lot longer than the top heads, since you don't hit them. But they do get old, stretched and brittle.

The stock heads are also the cheapest pieces of junk that they could put on at the factory...

 

[Atkron205]

Remo pinstripes are not oil filled, they are just 2 ply heads.

years ago I worked with The Little River Band as sound tech, I know this is gonna sound like Im full of it, the drummer had a Styrofoam ball about tennis ball size in each of his toms and floor tom, he had double headed deep power toms. they just bounced around as he played. his drums sounded awesome, needed very little processing at FOH. they sounded just like the record live.

 

[Farview]

I've seen that. Simon Phillips has paint cans filled with sand in his kicks to tighten them up. There are all.sorts of ways to get the drums to do what you want, but most of the good ones allow the head to resonate freely, at least for a second.

I used to cut up an old towel into squares and tape them to the head. I would put one piece of tape on one side of the towel such that it creates a flap. When you hit the drum, the head resonates normally for a second as the towel bounces up. Then the towel.settles and dampens the head. The size of the towel determines how much ring you get.