Drumming head selection. (Specifics inside.)

[RedDog]

I did a search, and found zero clips for any of my questions for a series of heads in general. I did find plenty of buzzwords, but my eyes are deaf as fuck. Anyway, I have a Gretsch Catalina Club mod and I'm going to re-head it for no reason at all other than I like to play drums when I don't have any work to do (and I don't have any work to do).

SO HEY, GOT CLIPS? Of any combination of batter and reso heads on toms, snare, kick, what have you.

I may be leaning toward pinstripes or the G series for batter heads on my toms, the most important part for me is the resonant head selection? What do you like, and what would you like to try? If I like a combo, I'll have samples up in the near future with maybe a few new mics.

If you have any buzzwords for me, keep them along the lines of "Punchy, thick, crisp, and resonant", in terms of onomatopoeic reference. I like woody sounds and taking those sounds next level on ya candy asses.

Love you guys, any feedback is appreciated.

 

[~BURNY~]

I don't have specific clips right now but:
I hate the pinstripes with a passion.

I like Emperor Clear for metal, coated for mellower stuff. With moon gels. G2 if I can't find remos.
I recently tried coated ambassadors as reso head (because I had nothing else available) and loooooved the result. Rule of thumb: single ply.

Snare: the remo controlled sound reverse dot really grew on me lately. I hate the powerstroke 4. I like the evans HDD too. Reso I don't know for sure.

Kick: I love the powerstroke 3

 

[RedDog]

I'm loving my Evans HD dry "Level 360" snare top head. In combo with puresound snares on my pacific or my deep mapex, it is the KIIING. fat as fuck tuned high.

 

[BLUElightCory]

Remo Controlled Sound for snare. I think it's the best combination of crack, air, sensitivity, and controlled ring that I've come across (and we've used pretty much everything out there).

On toms, I've been very impressed lately with the new Evans heads with the 360 collar. G2s are a good way to go (or Remo Emperor). Remo clear Ambassadors are the standard for resonant tom heads.

On kick, Powerstroke 3.

 

[John Haddad (Shiva Industries)]

I find heads are Kit/Wood/Depth specific. I had a Pearl Reference with power toms and the heads I would normally use on my Starclassic Maple sounded much different on the reference, not bad but... definitely different. Also same issue with my DW collectors maple... You're fairly safe in the tom dept. with Remo Emperor clear's or Maybe Evans G 2's for metal applications. For Snare's in my opinion the Remo Powerstroke 3's are great and tune up easy...they are a single ply head tho so they my damage faster for a hard hitter. Kick's Powerstroke 3's or Super Kick 1's IMO. Really just depends on the sound you're going for. I want my drums to sound as OPEN as possible to retain all the natural tone before I even think about sampling.

 

[John Haddad (Shiva Industries)]

I hate the pinstripes with a passion.

Big +1

 

[MatrixClaw]

I hate pinstripes, they make everything sound dead.

 

[John Haddad (Shiva Industries)]

I hate pinstripes, they make everything sound dead.

They have this awkward ugly midrange to them as well. uke:

 

[AKoppenheffer]

Emperor black suede on snare... All day!

 

[Trevoire520]

Not a fan of pinstripes, too thick, make the drum go too dead. Good if you need a durable head for live work though.

I've been using G2's over G1's (clear) for my toms and I'm happy with the results, though I do fancy trying something else out soon just to see what else is out there.
Powerstroke 3 with a falam slam pad is what I'm using on kick, and when I'm live engineering it almost always is the head that's on kick the nights that I'm particularly impressed with the kick sound I'm getting.

Evans genera dry on snare is good for me, though I'm again thinking of trying something else, probably a Remo CS.

I'll see if I can get some clips up in the next couple of weeks, a bit busy at the mo.

 

[Machinated]

i agree with everything in this thread so far.

tried lots of heads, always come back to emperors (coated or clear depending on band), clear ambassadors on res heads.

snare i love controlled sound, sometimes emperor X can be cool. genera HD dry sounds cool but its too dead for the kind of snare sounds i like for most things. for faster music its cool.

kick is all about power stroke III

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

Aquarian Super-2's are my favorite for toms and snare. They're 2-ply with one ply being thinner, and Aquarian's collar design seems to make them tune up more easily than Remo/Evans and stay there. They are drier sounding, but without any extra muffling they're just right for what I go for. For bright kicks I like PS3, and Superkick or EMAD for a fuller sound.

 

[mva801]

Remo Clear Emperor or Evans Clear G2 on toms (pretty much the exact same thing). Tried the coated G2 on the last re-head and didn't like them as much as the clear. Definitely warmer/ more midrange in them. Evans genera resonant/ g1/ or Remo clear ambassador for tom reso.

On snare, I like Remo coated ambassador almost exclusively. THE most open and brightest head. Keep the moongel handy. I HATE the thicker evans heads on snare. The HD dry and the like just make it sound dead as fuck to me. Like it's being choked off. I also read that the drum doctor likes to use coated ambassadors on the bottom of shallower snares. I kinda want to try that too....

Edit: FWIW, my old drum teacher had a Gretsch Catalina kit and when he put the clear G2's on the toms, MOTHER OF GOD. Deep, bright, punchy. plenty of low end in all the right places. For metal, I don't think you could do any better. Also get yourself a tune-bot if you haven't already....

 

[RedDog]

Oh yes, I swear by my tune bot. The recommended settings on the website get you started, but once you understand the math and start using your ears, it's unstoppable. I've tuned old heads to sound phenomenal.

For my first setup, it looks like I'm going for g2's up top and clear ambassador's down below. I'll see how I like em.

 

[mva801]

^^^ Sounds good. Also FWIW, those numbers in the suggested thing are way off for me. I don't like tuning my reso heads above my batters. Start with them tuned the same and then try tuning the reso's a bit LOWER. See if you like that at all. As always, different kits, different strokes, YMMV. I usually end up lower than their suggested numbers. I think I was around 100hz top and bottom of my 16" floor tom, 1" from the lugs. Closer to 140 top and bottom of my 12" rack. It may be the coated heads needed to be tuned a bit lower to get the punch I wanted.... I ended up having to tune them by ear then just use the tunebot to even things up and keep them consistent.