Bass Drums... To port, or not to port?

[Jules]

What is your take on porting the reso head on your bass drum?

[Joe´s Drumgear]

Tbh I like the feeling of a ported head. Especially because I play a lot of doublebass, non ported heads don‘t feel right for me.

[Jules]

Tbh I like the feeling of a ported head. Especially because I play a lot of doublebass, non ported heads don‘t feel right for me.

I have updated the options, rewording one No and one Yes to add "feel" to the verbiage

[drummermark]

I prefer the sound of a full head, but for some reason, most sound guys seem to go into a tizzy when they can’t place a mic into a port hole. So I’ll mostly use ported head to keep everyone’s stress level to a minimum. Makes me consider internal mics so I can have the best of both worlds.

[Jack]

IME, the bass drum sound takes a hit when you cut a hole acoustically - bottom end get sucked for sure and I always prefer a full head acoustic sound. But, to get the ‘mic’d sound’ through a PA, a hole is the near essential (unless you’re running a Kelly shu or the likes) which is every gig for me, or flexibility for recording. I run as small as I can get away with which is a 4” as it allows a Shure Beta 91A to pass through … just!

[Frank Godiva]

I use a 20 most of the time

Not a fan of the port

[Jules]

In follow up, I have ordered felt strips and an SCH 20. Looking forward to getting it all worked out later this week. No port planned at this time.

[Frank Godiva]

At one time, these felt stripe was standard issue from the factory and the port hole reso didn’t start until the 90s with the 3000 series afaik

It’s a classic Sonor look and sound

[Jules]

I considered getting a clear Sonor reso from DCP for that purpose. But, the 50’s vibe of the Vintage series and that logo head wouldn’t have been very proper together.

[Jack]

I run a felt strip on the reso heads of all my bass drums. Remo Weckl muffler on the batter.