I'd have to hear it to believe it. AFAIK covering one side of the mic isn't necessarily going to affect the polar pattern in the way that you think.

I would think that would have the opposite effect. Side and rear entry ports are designed to reject sound coming from the side or rear, and is essential in reinforcing the sound entering from the front.
Easy enough to test though, I would think.

Was he from Toledo?

In a thread about tom mics, I said I stopped using 57s years ago because I got tired of repairing them after the drummers hit them with a stick. Anyway, I passed along a tip about not wrapping tape around the side screen when they get their heads knocked off - it adversely affects the sound (to me the sound loses all of its body). I remember someone else commenting that they deliberately wrapped theirs in tape to make their 57s omni. I don't know accurate that is, but I do know for sure I didn't like the sound of them taped. I always ended up doing a complete repair on them. [reload the spring-clip, and a couple drops of superglue if necessary, made them sound good as new]

So even if it did reduce some hihat bleed, it might also take away from the 57's natural tone. You'd have to use some trial and error, you got nothing to lose.

If you've got serious bleed issues, I've used these before, and I know they help with bleed.

Auralex Trap-Xpander

A couple of weeks ago, i heard of that new product :
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.gearwire…"]Primacoustic CrashGuard Drum Mic Shield Isolates Drum Mics From Crash Cymbals | Gearwire[/]="http://www.gearwire…"]Primacoustic CrashGuard Drum Mic Shield Isolates Drum Mics From Crash Cymbals | Gearwire[/]

I did not try it but it sounds interesting, and it's not that expensive.

Actually, Mr. Hawk - your comment was the reason for this post. The engineer's name was Brian Niesz, and he's worked w/ a lot of good indie bands and does the sound/recording for WOXY's Lounge. I don't really have a lot of issue w/ bleed - I just carefully place my snare mic.

I was just curious if anyone else had heard of such things.
Like natural said, one would think you would place the tape between the snare and hat, not on the other side, but I'm pretty sure this is what he did.
Maybe I'll look him up and ask him directly.

UHHH, just to be clear, I wasn't advocating putting tape anywhere on the mic. I was suggesting that putting tape anywhere on the side or rear entry ports of a mic will increase the sound from the side and rear.
In order to get rejection from the side or rear, sound has to enter both the side/rear entry ports as well as the front of the mic in order to be cancelled out. The bigger these ports, the more the rejection. (look at a shotgun mic)
So placing tape anywhere on the ports reduces their size and their ability to reduce unwanted sound.
Sound that reaches the side ports first before reaching the front, gets reduced. Sound that enters the front first and then the side gets reinforced.

Understood about the tape - again, this isn't something I do myself, I was trying to ferret out the reasoning behind it.
Actually, that may explain what he was trying to do.

Tape on snare side = less cancellation, no tape on hat side = more cancellation

Does that make sense?