Are you a Wood, Felt or Rubber person?

L

LittleLegs

Senior Member
... no, I'm not talking about fetish wear (obviously lamb's wool is the winner in that department!). But I wondered what bass drum beater you use and why?
I'm a DW wood man. I like the attack of all my drums to sound harmonious and I play with wood tips, not felt tips. To my ears the extra weight makes the biggest richest tone of all wood beaters.
 
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I typically like a hard beater, and have been using the plastic/felt DW and Ludwig/Gibraltar beaters for years. But I recently discovered the Vic Firth VicKicks wood beater, and it's pretty cool. it's sort of a puck shape with rounded corners, hard to describe, and you can turn it to the side for a fat hit, or a sweet click. they also make them in felt and lambs wool.

There was a hard rubber beater a while back, maybe from Danmar? Sounded fabulous, lots of punch and fundamental, but it was heavy and a little unwieldy for quick footwork.

Bermuda
 
I like hard felt beaters, mostly Yamaha, lately though they seem to me loosing shape and flattening out a bit? Who makes a hard felt that can take a beating?
 
Tama wood beaters - I like the fact you can adjust the angle so that the wood has a full direct hit. I do a lot of loud/fast double bass so I need the definition.

However, pbm2112's comment about DW wood providing a larger sound is intriguing, I might give it a shot. Thanks.
 
My favorite beater was a cork beater that I sanded flat. That was in the 80's, it's long gone now. I've been using the DW hard plastic side since 2004, I like the attack, but I should try out some wood ones again. The Tama ones sound interesting.
 
It depends on the drum for me---on my 22x14 I use the felt side because it feels like being punched in the chest---the hard plastic side is more like being kicked with a combat boot---on the deeper drums (18-20") the wood or plastic seems necessary to get any thump!
 
I recently custom ordered a Low Boy Beater, and I can't get enough of it. The flat hard side gives it a really really nice thump sound for harder rock and metal, or just a nice slap sound when you feather it. The reverse side which comes to a rounded point is very nice for softer applications like jazz or just slower music. I used previously just a Ludwig felt beater, but I'm never switching back.
 
I like this Yamaha beater for med. to high volume playing and an old Camco beater for feathering the bass drum in big band playing.
 

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Felt primarily and have been using a cymbal felt glued to a wooden beater for weeks. I just ordered a Low Boy wood beater from their new line.
 
I use red Danmar wood mostly. I'm thinking about getting new speed cobra beaters. The stock ones are worn pretty bad. Vic kicks look appealing though.
 
Felt or fleece, but I'm wanting to try out one of those Low Boy beaters for a different sound.
 
For years I used the DW felt/plastic beaters and just recently I went back to old skool felt beaters. It looks cool on my vintage FlexiFlyer pedal.
 
Felt, I only use felt. Peace and goodwill.
 
Another Vickick beater guy here.........I use the felt ones and have no complaints.
 
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opentune said:
Felt. I'm a soft-hearted kinda guy.
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Same here. Literally and figuratively. I'm not fond at all of Yamaha's wood beater's because they've already wore through the head of the kick drum on the Yamaha drum set where I used to go to church by our heavy-footed drummer.
 
I love my vintage bomber giant furball beater.. With a hard beater i tend to bounce too much.. so rather than fix me, i changed beaters no more bounce:) That wasn't the main reason though.. i don't like how hard beaters have a SMACK SMACK sound.. the bomber is just a nice pleasing thud..
 
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