New Beater

[mangorockfish]

I don't know if any of you guys noticed the beater in the pics of my kit John posted. It is an old lambs wool one and it really sounds great. I doubt that you can find one of these anymore, however, Vater is making new ones. You should really think about trying one.
Mango'

[jmettam]

Hey Mango,

You know, I did notice that and was curious about the sound. I have a wooden DW beater on mine to get a little more attach out of my drum. But, it's a 14" so it needs all the extra help it can get. I bet the wool sounds great on a larger drum!

I thought that a couple of other companies out there still made them but I doubt that they are that popular!

Thanks for pointing it out.

- John

[palacki808]

That's interesting. I've never used anything like that before. What does it do for the sound of the drum? I'd bet it really rounds out the tine nicely.

John mentioned using a plastic beater on his drum for more attack. I typically use a wood beater for the same reason. Danmar makes nice wood beaters that are stained red, I've always used these. Not only for the attack, but you also get a little more volume out of the drum. It helps when your trying to play with a horn section. Those horns get loud and you're not mic'ed you need all the help you can get sometimes.

-Joe

[fw]

I like large, felt beaters, but I've found that they mess up the action of DW and Axis pedals. I just feel like the tiny beaters of today give more of a thwack sound than a boom sound. So I feel like I'm always compromising either speed or tone. I heard the lambswool beaters are really good for feathering the bass drum, but not so great for pounding it.

By the way, I ordered two wuhan 12" splashes for $29 including shipping over musician's friend. They unfortunately suck as hi hats, but they almost sound like crash cymbals due to their size. I think they'd work nicely as crashes on a cocktail set. I've made the hi hat thing work with wuhan 10" cymbals before...I think the trick is you need to hand select a really heavy one and a medium one...mail order probably won't get you a good set of hi hats.

[palacki808]

That's one of the coolest attributes of cymbals. They all sound different. Even if you take two mass produced cymbals of the same finish, size weight, brand and type they will still sound alittle different. When you go by mail order, you have only a general idea of what you will get.

The best way to get cymbals I have found is to go to a local drum shop and dig through the used cymbal rack. You never know what you might find, you could discover a completely new sound. My preferences have changed over the years due to hearing odd or vintage cymbals.

Sorry for getting so far off topic.

-Joe

[mangorockfish]

Back to the beaters.The lamb's wool works pretty goood even laying into it. It kinda just rounds out the sound. I read that the Vater does a good job, having a cork center, when you lay into it also. I say that it is worth a shot.
Mangorockfish