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Different drums call for different heads, there's no disputing that.

I would be hardpressed to argue with the assertion that Remo Coated Ambassadors are the .10s of the drum head world.

I personally do not love the Evans G1s and G2s, but I have friends who use them. I don't know why it's an issue that the coating comes off of the Emperors and Ambassadors eventually- if you're playing with brushes, that coating in the center of the drum is important, but if you're playing with brushes, then it won't be flaking off that quickly. If you're playing with sticks, yes, the coating in the center of the drum will flake off, but it's the coating out around the edges that is giving the head just a little bit of damping that mellows the tone of the head just enough to keep it from getting "boing"-ish as the head gets some dents in it.

Evans is sending me some of their new heads to try in the my studio- they have a sort of textured finish that it not sprayed on but is actually the texture of the head. I will report back here.

I think pinstripes have their place, though usually for me.... it's on someone else's drums. I find them too tubby sounding, and I can get that throaty, boomy sound my mucking around with the tuning of the resonant head on my toms. The only place I could see ME using a pinstripe would be on the batter side of the kick drum, but God is just, merciful and kind, and has given us the Remo Powerstroke for that.

These Aquarian American Vintage heads sound really nice on old drums that have thicker bearing edges and are slightly oversized- they had to be made this way for calfskin heads. I use them on my 1952 Radio King kit.

If you're really smacking the drums, and I do, I suggest Emperors on everything. It was good enough for John Bonham, etc etc...

I use coated Emperors on the batter heads of my Vistalite kit and on my Ludwig Maple kit from the '70s. A lot of guys suggested the dotted CS Remo heads for the batter side of the Vistas, and I tried them... but they just didn't sound as musical as the Emperors did.

I would like to draw your attention to a couple of photographs:





That first kit is Charlie Watts' kit, and the second is Richard "Pistol" Allen, of the Funk Brothers. (If you haven't seen "Standing in the Shadow of Motown," NOW would be a good time. Seriously. Now. Come read the rest of this later.)

Both of those guys are playing Gretsch Kits, which are known for their bell-like tone and sharp bearing edges. They're both using dotted heads as resonant heads, and both of them are famous for their incredible tone. Is this a coincidence? I have to wonder if they found it easier to control the tone of their Gretsch toms if they had a dotted head on the reso side.

(You can see Pistol Allen's Gretsch kit in this video of "Shotgun" with Gerald LeVert singing, though Allen is playing tambouring while Uriel Jones plays the kit on this track.)

I have been thinking of getting a Gretsch kit... y'know, because six kits isn't quite enough...


parenthetically: This fucking Motown stuff just KILLS me. <3

Why is it that every single Standing in the Shadows of Motown clip on YouTube has French subtitles? Did the French flip out for this film? Can I get work in France playing Motown stuff? Sylvain..... can I stay on your couch until I get a place?

Apologies Drumists… I have nothing technical to add here. I just like eves dropping on drum talk (it is so much more interesting than guitar talk.). And I want to say that the Motown doc that Ringo talks of is incredible! Watch it! I caught it late at night on the BBC a while back (the insomnia worked for me for a change) and it is one of the best music documentaries I’ve have seen.

On my kits where I am not playing like the drums are covered with bees, I play coated ambassadors on both sides. This is a great combination for wide open drums with a slightly warmer sound than you get with clear ambassadors.

Ruy Lopez wrote:Bon Hoga wrote:We should change all the heads on our kit sometime soon, the drummer wants coated Ambassadors on both sides of both toms. Crap idea or not crap idea?Neverminding the selection of coated Ambassadors, I will say I am in favor of using the same head on both sides. I think it does a lot of things. Since they are virtually identical mass and response, they should be complimentary when tuned to the same note and give a louder and more resonant drum. There shouldn't be any weird decay to have to deal with and it should be really easy to tune. To me, louder toms are always desirable since they are at a natural disadvantage to one drum tuned quite tightly and another that dwarfs them.I have also done this. Stole the idea from a post of FM benadrian's years ago. I've done matched coated Ambassadors, and matched coated Emperors, with great results. For context, this was on an older set of late 80s/early 90s Tama Rockstar-Pro drums with "power tom" depths, if that helps. In my case I wanted to tame the sound of the drums a bit, and the thicker, coated resonant head provided a more focused sound.

Bon Hoga wrote:We should change all the heads on our kit sometime soon, the drummer wants coated Ambassadors on both sides of both toms. Crap idea or not crap idea?I do this 'cause I heard Bonzo did it.Same goes for most other things, really.

I use Ambassador resonant heads for everything, either coated or clear depending on the kit and the job that kit needs to do.

dontfeartheringo wrote:DrAwkward wrote:On the subject of reso heads, kerble me if this was covered in the thread, but what's the sonic difference between diplomat and ambassador reso's, in y'all's opinion?I find that the Diplomat has shorter sustain as a resonant head and is a little more notey, pitch-wise. It'd be a great head if you were playing bebop on a 20-12-14 Gretsch kit and wanted that Max Roach/Art Blakey 'donk' sound.Here's a question - Hi! I just picked up a kit with the 12-14-20 sizes and do not plan to get all into that 'donk' sound. I'm a big fan of using the coated Vintage Ambassadors for my other kits and would probably keep using those for the batter, but what about resonant heads? Just standard coated Ambassadors?

garthplinko wrote:drcroc wrote:I don't really know how to tune drums that well though. I know the concept of how it should work but my execution is just meh. I need someone to teach me how to do it. and I've been playing drums for almost 14 years now...There are a lot of videos on youtube on this subject - some crap, some great but I've found many of them to be very helpful. A lot of us around here like the drum dial as a quick helper. I don't rely on it exclusively but I do find it gets me there much faster and then I fine tune by ear.EDIT, just thinking about using a snark tuner to get my drums tuned to a note. I wonder if that would actually work...viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60583viewtopic.php?f=5&t=63622viewtopic.php?f=5&t=59309

Aquarian Performance II make crappy drums sound good. I don't really know how to tune drums that well though. I know the concept of how it should work but my execution is just meh. I need someone to teach me how to do it. and I've been playing drums for almost 14 years now...

danielruder wrote:garthplinko wrote:drcroc wrote:I don't really know how to tune drums that well though. I know the concept of how it should work but my execution is just meh. I need someone to teach me how to do it. and I've been playing drums for almost 14 years now...There are a lot of videos on youtube on this subject - some crap, some great but I've found many of them to be very helpful. A lot of us around here like the drum dial as a quick helper. I don't rely on it exclusively but I do find it gets me there much faster and then I fine tune by ear.EDIT, just thinking about using a snark tuner to get my drums tuned to a note. I wonder if that would actually work...viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60583viewtopic.php?f=5&t=63622viewtopic.php?f=5&t=59309I've watched videos and read tutorials and even watched a few people do it. There are some people who have a natural ability to make their kit sing with amazing tuning. Others just give everything a really round and punchy tone ... I think I comes down to practice makes perfect. And I just haven't practiced doing it enough. I'm just like "whatever good enough, let's go" I'll check out your links, thanks.