Remo Powerstroke 3 Bass Head sounds dead
I just got new bass drum heads (20” kick): coated Remo Powerstroke 3 batter and coated Evans EQ3 resonant. Trying for a warmer, slightly more open sound than what I get with my go to combo of Evans EMAD2 and EMAD resonant.
But it sounds terrible. The Powerstroke 3 just sounds dead. Like a finger tight floor tom. And then as I’m tightening the lugs eventually it starts to sound like a floor tom with an old, dead head and lots of moon gel.
With the EMADs my bass drum would sound the same from behind and in front of the kit but I noticed with the new heads although it sounds terrible from behind the kit, when I put my head right next to the resonant head and hit the pedal with my hand it sounds pretty good, but only when I’m literally right next to it. I assume that’s the sound the mic will pick up at gigs?
How do I get the P3 sound I’ve seen so many people praise? Is it supposed to sound like this and I’m just used to the short boom and thud of the EMAD sound?
Posted Mar 14, 2018, 1:19 PM UTC
Did you properly seat the head? Remos don’t contour the bearing edge out of the box like Evans 360s do, so the head needs to be stretched. If not, then at looser tunings, the head won’t actually sit on the bearing edge properly.
I didn’t think about that. I’ll try it. I switched to Evans about 10 years ago because I was tired of Remo coated heads flaking off so it’s been a while since I bothered to really seat a head.
Read the Drum Tuning Bible in the sidebar if you need to know how to seat the head.