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The 22" Super-Kick II (top right) is Aquarian's larger twin ply bass drum head

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• Review

Aquarian supremo Roy Burns was the original drum set clinician and a top big band player. So, even though Aquarian is widely seen as the third head company after Remo and Evans, you can be sure Aquarian products are drummer-friendly.

The Super-Kicks I, II and III are variations on Aquarian's popular bass head system and the Regulators are the perfect complementary front heads.

Build

The Super-Kicks and Regulators all feature Aquarian's patented Floating Muffling System. The unique aspect of this is the use of felt as a damping material, rather than the foam rubber that characterises the (roughly) equivalent heads of Remo and Evans.

The Super-Kick I and II look identical. They both utilise clear film and have a 1 1/4" band of cosmetic black coating running around the perimeter. On the inside there's a 1 3/4" wide perimeter ring of white cardboard, which encloses the so-called 'floating' white felt damping material.

"The Super-Kick lays felt right around the perimeter, the most resonant area of the head. It subdues the high overtones and leaves you with a dark, wet 'blap'"

It's only partially floating because it's firmly glued in place along the outermost edge, but most of the felt ring is held loosely against the inside of the batter.

The difference between the two heads is that the Super-Kick I is single 10mm Mylar ply and the Super-Kick II is twin 7mm ply. The Super-Kick III is single 10mm ply, like the Super-Kick I, but white coated and with an additional central 6 1/2" diameter white impact Power Dot on the outside of the head.

Alongside the Super-Kicks, Aquarian offers the Regulator series of resonant front heads. These are single ply 10mm in Video Gloss Black or White, which come either with no porthole, or with the choice of a 7" central hole, or 4 1/4" off-set hole. We were sent a 20" white (no hole) and 22" black with off-set hole.

The Regulators also have felt muffling, which this time takes the form of a 10 1/2" diameter doughnut ring of 4cm wide felt glued on.

Hands On

What's always struck us about the Super-Kick I is the deep fat sound, especially in combination with a Regulator front head and small miking hole. This is because Aquarian, uniquely, uses felt for the damping ring.

Before the advent of pillows and complex head designs, a simple loose felt strip was the normal muffling solution. The Super-Kick lays felt right around the perimeter, the most resonant area of the head. It subdues the high overtones and leaves you with a dark, wet 'blap'.

The Emad and PowerSonic both use foam rubber perimeter damping and, while foam is just as efficient, it doesn't seem to be quite as richly warm as Aquarian's felt.