@three_easy_payments---It may partly be the recording of Mitch’s drums (1960’s Ludwigs), but also how he tuned and (didn’t) damp them. His drums sounded about the same live (I saw him twice) as on the Hendrix albums, high and ringy, with lots of sustain and resonance. That’s how Jazz drummers tend to like their drums to sound, the heads tensioned tight (which results in the drums being high pitched) so as to get maximum stick rebound off the drumhead with every stroke, and undamped, leaving them free to ring, which plastic drumheads do. Ginger Baker tuned his Ludwigs the same as Mitch.
Ringo liked his drums to sound more dead, common amongst Rockers, myself included. Many apply some form of damping to their drumheads, to kill the high ring. Ringo used pieces of towel, others use less drastic damping like folded up tissue taped to the heads. I use sanitary napkins ;-) .
Compare Levon Helm’s Gretsch drums on The Band albums to Mitch and Ginger’s. Levon’s sound very low pitched and "thumpy", with shorter sustain and far less high ring. By the way, after his Hendrix days, Mitch switched from Ludwig to Gretsch.
