DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

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

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.

Joe´s Drumgear wrote: Fri Sep 12, 2025 11:04 am

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

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.

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!

I use a 20 most of the time

Not a fan of the port

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.

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

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.

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