154 wrote:Emperor batter for sure. I'd get a falam pad, too.I'm slightly, slightly, slightly put off by FM mr arrison's negative experience, but on the other hand the Emperor should last a lot longer. A Falam and some felt strips go without saying.

Clear Remo Ambassador batter w/ Falam padA Fiberskyn 3 Ambassador for the front.

Redline wrote:Clear Remo Ambassador batter w/ Falam padA Fiberskyn 3 Ambassador for the front.We went with a clear Ambassador batter plus Falam plus 2 felt strip and a Fiberskyn Powerstroke reso. Sounds like a fucking cannon, I couldn't be happier. Also, matching heads on toms is

I love how balanced our kick drum is now. No nasty ringing, but plenty of sustain; loads of boom, yet plenty of attack and definition. And the Fiberskyn looks like it's going to last.

Bon Hoga wrote:We went with a clear Ambassador batter plus Falam plus 2" felt strip and a Fiberskyn Powerstroke reso. Sounds like a fucking cannon, I couldn't be happier. Also, matching heads on toms is Minus the felt strip, that was the head set up I used last in the studio. The Fiberskin bass drum on front seemed to add some low end.

After spending way too many hours watching the Muscle Shoals documentary, I figured out that Roger Hawkins spent many, many years playing a Ludwig calfskin head on a 5" x 14" Supraphonic. (You can see the Ludwig Whitecalf logo in some shots.)I have some calf heads in my storage space, so I thought I'd see what it was like to gig on one of those. This weekend I played behind John Dee Graham at a private party.Calfskin over Supra is definitely a thing. It sounded like the '60s in the best way imaginable. I need to figure out some way to shoot video and post sound samples. If you're trying to do a retro backbeat thing, I'd highly recommend giving this a shot.

I'm the last few years I have been an active gigging drummer and NOTHING holds up as well as Aquarian heads. I can wear a remo coating off in a 4 hour rehearsal but I've never destroyed an Aquarian!

So I took the plunge and bought some roto toms this weekend. I'm really fucking proud of this if you couldn't tell.I need to put new heads on these fellas - 6, 8, 10. Am I right in assuming Remo clear black dots are the way to go? I also know that some folks dig clear pinstripes. For some reason, I have a feeling that FM redline will definitely have an answer for this...

four\_oclocker\_2 wrote:So I took the plunge and bought some roto toms this weekend. I'm really fucking proud of this if you couldn't tell.I need to put new heads on these fellas - 6", 8", 10". Am I right in assuming Remo clear black dots are the way to go? I also know that some folks dig clear pinstripes. For some reason, I have a feeling that FM redline will definitely have an answer for this...The Clear CS Dot heads are pretty much standard on RotoToms. The dot really gives them that "pop" throughout the tuning range, so the attack is fairly consistent no matter how the head is tensioned. I have seen black Pinstripes on a few sets but... Pinstripes. Ugh.

Coated Ambassadors have the most bark, especially on the smaller sizes. That's all I use now. Here's a proggy A/B test for ya.CoatedphpBB [media]Black DotsphpBB [media]