Kick drum dampening!?

[dammow]

OK, i have a 24x18 kick drum and have always used the common practice of a pillow inside the drum to dampen it. however, everytime i set my drums up at a gig i have to stick my hands in the porthole and move it around etc to get it in the right place and maybe im just lazy but, it annoys me! plus the fact i hate the way you can see the pillow through the ports. i have however seen the method of putting a strip of fabric under the batter head to eliminate the need for a pillow etc.

so, basically before i do this to try it out i just wanna know if any of you guys use this way or should i just stick with the pillow? also, what fabric is best? im guessing felt? how wide should it be? and do i stretch it right across the middle of the drum or keep it off centre?

a bit of advice would be good before i give it a go please!

thanks,

dammow.
P.S i have a remo powerstroke 3 batter head if that makes any difference.

 

[xdoseonex]

that piece of felt isnt gonba eliminate your need for a pillow. the only thing that will is an extrernall dampered bass drum batter head. every company makes one. Evans has the Emad, Remo has the powersonic, aquarian has the superkick II, and attack has the...... well,......well who the hell uses attack heads anyway.

 

[SGarrett]

Along with head selection, maybe a DW or PDP kick pillow?

 

[dammow]

yea, ive seen those but thought the felt would prevent the need for a pillow alltogether. may have a look at the proper ones now though as they seem a bit more 'compact'!

thanks for advice so far.

 

[xdoseonex]

what i use is a small shoot of soundproofing. the one that looks like a million little fingers. about 16" wide and a bit shorter than my kick drum. I have one side of i barly toching my batter head. I took my pillow out when i switched from an emad to a powersonic. that little sheet of soundproofing aborbs any unwanted resonation, and the powersonic head ives me all the punch i could ever need

 

[drumur]

Bonham used a felt strip front and back.
Simon Phillips uses a rolled up towel taped to the inner edge.


it's really a matter of preference.

For me, I like to use the smallest pillow possible if I use one.
The Evans muffle works good.

I used to like a perfectly-cut piece of foam the touches both heads.
Like Garret said,,,it also depends on the heads.

 

[DRUMSMYWIFE]

If this hasn't already been said use the Evans EQ pad that has velcro strips and is fully adjstable to limitless possibilities accomodating any size/depth of a bassdrum. Oh and Terry Bozzio uses Attack heads dude!