POWERSTROKE PRO!!!!!!

defregano

Member
Wow..what a disappointment. So, purchasedremo's new clear powestroke pro head yesterday. I was pretty excited about it. Defintely prefer remos heads on toms and snare but i was still waiting for remo to trump the emad. Well, after two days of playing and messing with the tuning i think this is a failed attempt by remo. The first thing i noticed when playing it is that it had a vibrating plasticy attack sound that would not go away no matter which way it was tuned or when i added some dampening on the head. Also, i expected the head to be very punchy and it did have some punch but it sounded muffled..similar to what i heard on the powersonic head. Definitely an improvement over the powersonic but i'd take the ps3 over this thing any day.

So just for comparison i put the emad back on and whatta ya know...my bass drum sounded great again!! A huge chest thumping resonant punch and no plastic sound! Sorry remo but i think we're gonna have to try it again. Anybody else try this thing out yet? Curious to know your impressions.
 
i expected the head to be very punchy and it did have some punch but it sounded muffled.

What? Muffled?? All that foam and it sounded muffled....how could foam rings possibly muffle the sound? Surely you jest? :)

Seriously, thanks for the review. I've been interested to know what users though of them since reading about it here on DW. Haven't seen them in Oz yet and was tempted to try it out in my practice room where overtones have been known to run wild and free. I would still use my tried and tested PS3's for playing outside of that environment though.

Certainly interested in hearing more.....I was really hoping Remo may have got this one right.
 
Ha, I like how enthusiastic the thread title is, followed up by that post.

I tried to pick one up a couple of days ago but my store hadn't gotten them in yet. My guy said they ordered them as early as anyone, so they should be arriving soon. Anyway, he thought they sounded great when he tried them at NAMM, and all the early reviews seem positive. I still plan to buy one and try it out on a couple of my sets. What kind of drum did you try it out on? What's the reso head like? It sounds like you tried some other dampening in the bass drum as well. Did you try the head by itself with no muffling, too?

I've used the Muff'l strips before and I really like what that does to the couple of drums I've tried it on. Looking forward to seeing if this works just as good.
 
Yea tried it with no muffling also. Still kept the same characterstics..with some more volume and resonance but its shortcomings were still present
 
I sold one of the first ones we got in the store, and I warned the customer that I hadn't even tried it yet, nor had any of us, but he still bought it, and came back the next day raving. He was very pleased with it, but he was going for muffled. That might be your problem...
 
Ran around to a couple of music stores in my area. They were all sold out, but the couple of guys who had tried them said they were something else. Got home and placed an order for one I found online. Look forward to my review next week!
 
Im thinking my head may be somewhat defective...the plasticy (crunchy/crackling) sound im getting doesn't sound like anything remo would deem acceptable. Gonna put the head back on and try it again...if its not working out ill go exchange it for another ps pro and see if there's any difference.
By the way my bass drum is an all birch yamaha stage custom
 
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Im thinking my head may be somewhat defective...the plasticy (crunchy/crackling) sound im getting doesn't sound like anything remo would deem acceptable. Gonna put the head back on and try it again...if its not working out ill go exchange it for another ps pro and see if there's any difference.
By the way my bass drum is an all birch yamaha stage custom

I can't remember the name of the process, but have your you pushed very hard on the head after it was on, all around the outside of it to stretch it out?
 
I can't remember the name of the process, but have your you pushed very hard on the head after it was on, all around the outside of it to stretch it out?

Seating the head helps a lot. I have found with new heads its sometimes beneficial to tune it on the high side and make sure you seat it, (usually by pressing down on the center of the head like you were giving a CPR chest compression). Leave it tuned high and come back the next day, loosen it and then begin the tuning process. If you can wait the 24 hours it seems like the head is easier to tune and keeps in tune much better.

Just a suggestion.
 
I just put one on my Tama SCP kick.It is a little muffeled but it seems to have a woof type of sound.It has a nice feel and it sounded better out front.I have it on with no internal muffeling and a ebony PS3 with a 5in hole on the reso side.Don't put any muffleing in it because it would totally dry it out IMO.I think I'm going to try a Aquarian Force 1&2 bass drum head set up next.
 
Make sure to try seating the head. If that doesn't work, if you want to go try a different Powerstroke Pro on your kick, take your old head in with you. Pull them out the the box and tap the edges to see how they sound. I went to go buy a Aquarian TC 14" for my snare, and I pulled it out and tapped it, and it didn't sound so great; I grabbed the one next to it and tapped it and it sounded a lot better. The best sounding when I tapped it was a Modern Vintage Medium. I don't know how much of a difference this makes when it's tuned up, but the difference was enough to get me asking questions. Pretty soon I won't be ordering anything online... haha. I look forward to your reviews, and congratulations to Evans for standing strong. Hope you get the head to work out for you.
 
I currently have Remo's on most of my kit. I'm slowly replacing them with Aquarian heads. I think that they have a quality product, and great service. I like Evans because they really drive the competition and innovation. They are all great companies, and you should buy them for how you like them, not for what others say.
 
I just purchased today a 10&12in Aquarian Clear Responce 2's.When I got home I took both heads out and relized the 10 had a hazy look and the 12 was crystal clear.I called Aquarian and spoke to Roy Burns and told him both heads had the new logo wich is supposed to be the new mylar but the 10 was hazy and the 12 was clear.Mr Burns said that the 10 was the old mylar and that if the store didn't change it he would.When I called the store they checked all there 10's and they were all hazy and they would order me a new one.Mr Burns was very nice I personally think there was a mistake at the factory.So if anyone is going to buy new Aquarians check them before you take them home.
 
I received my Powerstroke Pro in the mail just an hour or so before tonight's band practice! I put it on and tuned it like I would a normal bass drum head and noticed immediately how much deeper my 22" bass drum sounded. It worked!

When we started practice and I was going up against everyone else's amplifiers, I realized I couldn't hear my bass drum as well. Since the head is designed to produce a lower overall sound, that made sense, I guess. But I decided to tighten the head a bit more before practice was over since, again, since it's designed to sound lower anyway I figured tightening the head at this point should work in my favor. That helped out a lot and at that point I was able to hear myself much better amongst everything.

Overall I'm happy with it; it's most certainly deeper. Looking forward to playing a gig this Saturday with it instead of crammed in a basement and seeing how that goes.
 
I received my Powerstroke Pro in the mail just an hour or so before tonight's band practice! I put it on and tuned it like I would a normal bass drum head and noticed immediately how much deeper my 22" bass drum sounded. It worked!

When we started practice and I was going up against everyone else's amplifiers, I realized I couldn't hear my bass drum as well. Since the head is designed to produce a lower overall sound, that made sense, I guess. But I decided to tighten the head a bit more before practice was over since, again, since it's designed to sound lower anyway I figured tightening the head at this point should work in my favor. That helped out a lot and at that point I was able to hear myself much better amongst everything.

Overall I'm happy with it; it's most certainly deeper. Looking forward to playing a gig this Saturday with it instead of crammed in a basement and seeing how that goes.

What head/muffling did you use before and do you use any muffling now?
 
What head/muffling did you use before and do you use any muffling now?

Clear Powerstroke 3 batter with an ebony Powerstroke 3 reso (no port). No extra muffling.

Not to say the Powerstroke Pro is necessarily better than the P3, it's just different and certainly does what it was designed to do.
 
Clear Powerstroke 3 batter with an ebony Powerstroke 3 reso (no port). No extra muffling.

Not to say the Powerstroke Pro is necessarily better than the P3, it's just different and certainly does what it was designed to do.

I was just curious, that's all. I've thought about this since I always hear good things about the EMAD and this appears to be Remo's answer to it, although I'll most likely just stick to the PS3, because if I used it I'd probably not want a muffling ring anyways... no sense in buying a head I won't utilize.
 
LOP where are you playing this w/e?
I'm at the Hayloft Saturday night.

I was talking to Randy J at H&B about this head and looked at it. It IS deep sounding just holding it and tapping on it.
He just pulled out a clear too. I wonder how low a coated is.
Too deep for my 20x26, but it'd be interesting to hear it on a "normal" bass drum.
 
LOP where are you playing this w/e?
I'm at the Hayloft Saturday night.

I was talking to Randy J at H&B about this head and looked at it. It IS deep sounding just holding it and tapping on it.
He just pulled out a clear too. I wonder how low a coated is.
Too deep for my 20x26, but it'd be interesting to hear it on a "normal" bass drum.

Oh they got more in? Or were those on hold for people? I felt a little bad ordering mine online, but when I went in that day it didn't sound like they'd be getting any more in stock for a long while.

So yeah, I was at the Hayloft last weekend! Wish I had this head then to see how it sounded mic'd up in there. We are playing a small benefit gig this weekend, and then a couple lined up in early April. I'll send you a PM!
 
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