Bri6366
Very well Known Member
I was sold on the 22x18 when I played my buddy's Yamaha Turbo Tour Custom kit in the late 80s-early 90s. I was playing Tama Superstar 22x16's at the time and I really liked the smaller diameter, deeper drum.
The very same for me. I played 14" deep bass drums my whole life. I was always under the impression that anything deeper was a waste of stage real estate with little benefit, until I got my first Sonor Prolite 17.5x22 BD. That thing made a believer of me. I don't know if it's just Sonor mojo at work, but it possessed everything that my 14's brought to the table, and added a richness and depth that I'd never experienced in any other 22" BD. This was further confirmed when I later acquired a Sonor Newport set with an 18x22. Same results. And I've never felt any of the sluggishness others have experienced. Feels just like a bass drum to me.22x16 if I'm choosing, but I have had great experiences with kick drums from 14"-18" deep. I have never had to deal with the "muddiness" in an 18" deep kick drum.
Do they really do that much R & D though. They are selling a product that hasn't changed much in almost 100 years. They make them better now of course but they are still wood tubes with skins stretched over them. I think the deep bass drums were much more of a marketing thing than anyone figuring out they were a great improvement over other depths. A lot of people buy drums with their eyes rather than ears and this was something that caught on big time along with the power tom craze where everything was geared towards "deeper is better". The tom fad eventually faded away (possibly partially because placement was such a problem if you wanted them over your bass drum) but the deep bass drums have hung on (no placement problem if you're on a big stage). The drum makers are in business to sell what people want to buy so if a trend takes hold they follow it. Even the endorsers might be cajoled into using the sizes that are selling rather than what they might prefer (not that it would much matter to the upper tier guys as they don't move their own stuff and what you hear is so processed, or possibly just a sample anyway, that the bass drum could be 12-24 inches deep and not really matter as far as what the audience hears).I find it somewhat difficult to believe that with all the R&D that manufacturers use, they would just arbitrarily decide to standardize on a size that is just 4" too long/deep for no reason.
I'm with you on this. I liked shallower bass drums quite a bit, but then I got my 17 x 22 Noble & Cooley CD Maple and that thing is huuuuge sounding. Super full sounding even at a higher tuning like I like.The very same for me. I played 14" deep bass drums my whole life. I was always under the impression that anything deeper was a waste of stage real estate with little benefit, until I got my first Sonor Prolite 17.5x22 BD. That thing made a believer of me. I don't know if it's just Sonor mojo at work, but it possessed everything that my 14's brought to the table, and added a richness and depth that I'd never experienced in any other 22" BD. This was further confirmed when I later acquired a Sonor Newport set with an 18x22. Same results. And I've never felt any of the sluggishness others have experienced. Feels just like a bass drum to me.
I still own four 14" deep bass drums (including two 24's) and a 16x22, as well. But if I'm going purely for presence and tone, the 17.5x22's win.
The very same for me. I played 14" deep bass drums my whole life. I was always under the impression that anything deeper was a waste of stage real estate with little benefit, until I got my first Sonor Prolite 17.5x22 BD. That thing made a believer of me. I don't know if it's just Sonor mojo at work, but it possessed everything that my 14's brought to the table, and added a richness and depth that I'd never experienced in any other 22" BD. This was further confirmed when I later acquired a Sonor Newport set with an 18x22. Same results. And I've never felt any of the sluggishness others have experienced. Feels just like a bass drum to me.
I still own four 14" deep bass drums (including two 24's) and a 16x22, as well. But if I'm going purely for presence and tone, the 17.5x22's win.
Gretsch was an early adopter of the deep bass drums. I don't think they ever actually made it into the (sparse) catalogs but they were listed in the price lists as "Cannon" Bass drums. I'm sure they were in there by the mid 1980's. I know they were when I was planning to order my new set in 1987. It's been a while since I've looked at any of those price lists but I think you could get any depth up to 24" (which was the depth of the shell tubes they got from Jasper). At the very least I know you could get a "square" bass (depth =diameter). Easy enough for them, they were just cutting longer tubes to the proper length for whatever drum they needed to make so they could just not cut them down as shallow. I remember thinking how cool that might be but then I saw one in person somewhere and decided it wasn't for me. They were very expensive too, even for Gretsch. I suppose they'd still make you one today, assuming their shells are still starting out as 24" deep tubes.I will never forget....and this is a way way long time ago....there was a fellow in Calgary....met him on tour....that had a Gretsch kit of all square sizes except the snare. The 22x22 was amazing.....definitely NOT as versatile as a 12 or 14 deep drum....but still....yowza!
bt
Pretty much the same here. I played a 1980 Tama Superstar 22X14 bass drum for 35 years. Four years ago, I replaced my Superstars with a Tama Starclassic Maple kit with a 22X18 bass drum. While my 1980 Superstar 22X14 sounded good, I never did quite get it to sound the way I wanted. The 22X18 Starclassic Maple is killer... I finally got the sound I was looking for all those years! And recently I even made it better when I changed from a clear Powerstroke 3 to Attack Head's new "Orbit" bass drum batter head. That allowed me to take out the small pillow I had inside. So now I have no muffling at all and the drum has great punch, articulation, and tone.The very same for me. I played 14" deep bass drums my whole life. I was always under the impression that anything deeper was a waste of stage real estate with little benefit, until I got my first Sonor Prolite 17.5x22 BD. That thing made a believer of me. I don't know if it's just Sonor mojo at work, but it possessed everything that my 14's brought to the table, and added a richness and depth that I'd never experienced in any other 22" BD. This was further confirmed when I later acquired a Sonor Newport set with an 18x22. Same results. And I've never felt any of the sluggishness others have experienced. Feels just like a bass drum to me.
I still own four 14" deep bass drums (including two 24's) and a 16x22, as well. But if I'm going purely for presence and tone, the 17.5x22's win.