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I'd like to hear this answer to.

Man I wanted to pull the trigger on that Slingerland 18 (spelled singerland in the auction) that went on ebay last night with the Rogers mount.

But I have promised myself to focus on one project at a time.. :(

I like double ply batters on smaller bass drums, or heavy skin. Coupled with a lighter reso head, small drums can be made to sound bigger. I always tap the head and get an idea of it's natural frequency. With small drums, lowest is best.

There are some new formulations for bass drums and they sound promising.

don't like pre-muffled heads.

I have tried many head combos for my 18 and at the moment I am using a Superkick ll with a coated Ambasador/felt strip.

Just got an 18 BD, vintage Rogers. I bought a new Aquarian Superkick 1 batter and a new Aquarian Regulator reso head (it has a muffle ring in the middle and a hole for a mike in the 3 oclock position). Put them on. Way too muffled. Took off the regulator reso and put on the original coated ambassador. Great sound to my ears. I learned that if you muffle the batter, you need that unmuffled reso head to give the drum its power and resonance.

Note that the drum is 5 ply maple with re-rings, a relatively thin shelled BD.

The drum came with a new Remo pinstipe clear batter and original ambassador reso. It sounded terrible because of way too much ring and resonance. That's probably why the former owner had the drum stuffed with laundry to remove that Boing. I think he played the drum with the original Ambassador coated on both sides with felts strips on both sides. But the batter gave out, big tear, so he said he'd buy me a new head before he shipped the drum, which he did, being the clear pinstripe.

The AQ superkick one (single ply clear) gave it the right amount of muffle.

18" (1963) Cleveland 3ply../ 20" (1970) Fullerton 5ply..

I've been using a eq2 (18") & a eq4 on my 20"..both ported..

no dampener / pillows etc..

Both have Remo single ply with the 2ply outter ring..

The 18 gives a thud...and the 20 gives a longer sustain..

I use a Clear Powerstroke 3 on the batter side of my bass drum and a Remo ebony Ambassador on the resonant side. There is no hole in the front head and the only muffling I use is a felt strip on each side. The tension of both BD heads is medium. Sometimes I use a white Ambassador on the reso side.

What kind of sound are you looking for? If you just want a muffled rock sound and are using a mic, go with PS3 etc.

Personally, I have found that pre-muffled heads or heads with control rings, are overkill due to the small size of the head.

I found that an ambassador batter with minimal to no muffling (might use a traditional thin strip of felt just kissing the side of the head) and an impact pad, combined with an original resonant (ambassador) with no muffling, is the best combination I have come across. Allows the drum to develop it's full potential of projection and bottom end. You can't get this with muffled heads.

I recently used this set up with my band and the bass cut right through the wall of vintage Fender amps, and didn't mic the kit.

However, I recently heard a great cover rock band. The drummer used an 18" Gretsch kit. He had the heads muffled, but an excellent PA system, so the drum was still very effective.

All depends on your sound and application.

I recently bought a coated 18 ambassador BASS head and didn't cancel in time cause I assumed mabe it was just thicker plyed than a batter head. I t was TOO SMALL for my floor tom :-( ???

I have two gigging small group jazz kits. The acoustic kit with a 14X18 BD has Fiberskyn heads front and back with no muffling. The fusion kit with a 16X18 BD has SK1 with floating reso ring. I like the wide open sound and high tuning of the acoustic BD and the tighter/more attack lower tuned fusion BD.