Patching drum head?

[Alan Lloyd]

Friends:
Is there any way to patch a tear in a skin head? I now have a six inch tear in the center of my bass drum head after only 10-12 hours of playing.

Would leather covered beaters help?

Your obdt svt.

[pjdrums96]

Re: Patching drum head?

Alan,

There are ways to fix a small hole in a skin head, but a six inch tear will probably require a new head. If you are using wooden tipped mallets, inspect the playing surface to see if there are any rough spots. These rough spots can cause the mallet to "chew" away at the skin and cause the head to become worn faster. You want the mallet tips to be as smooth as possible.

I do not know a lot about leather covered mallets. I'm not sure that playing with them would prolong the life of your skin heads anymore than wooden mallets. Skin heads are interesting in the fact that they could last you 2 years or 2 minutes without rhyme or reason.

If you choose to get a new head, I suggest tucking it yourself. Cooperman has skins on hand that they can send you without flesh hoops. This will will be cheaper than buying a pre-tucked skin.

Good Luck,

Patrick Jones
Camp Chase Fife and Drums

[joewhitney]

Re: Patching drum head?

There is no good way to patch a skin head, especially on a bass drum, which takes a much more powerful pounding than a snare. No head should break after so little a pounding. It should last years. Even if you could patch it, it would probably break again in some other location. It sounds like it was far too thin, and/or was treated or prepared in such a way that it weakened the fibres of the skin.

Order another head, and a thick one this time. The thicker the head, generally the longer it will last.

Almost all antique bass drum mallets were either skin-covered, or padded and then skin-covered, and had no rings or grooves carved into their handles. But I don't know of any dealer or sutler selling authentic bass drum mallets like that today.

Joe Whitney
2nd SC String Band
MD Line Field Music

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Patching drum head?

Cooperman charges way too much for skin heads.

You can get some thick calfskin heads here for a fraction of the cost of Cooperman's:

http://www.activemusician.com/Mid-East-Calfskins--c3203b383/rs=3

[Alan Lloyd]

Re: Patching drum head?

Friends

As a follow up; Despite the advice against it, I tried patching the head with a small oval of hide and some glue. So far it has held up very well.