evans hydraulics?

lovemysonors

Senior Member
anyone use these? wondering about using them on my Oak Customs for warmth but perhaps they're too much and kill all sustain?
 
I swear, if I ever open a music store I'm going to keep a fresh stock of heads that people can sample so they can make an informed decision. That would be a great advertising pitch... "Try professional drum heads here! Bring your drum."
 
I swear, if I ever open a music store I'm going to keep a fresh stock of heads that people can sample so they can make an informed decision. That would be a great advertising pitch... "Try professional drum heads here! Bring your drum."

Yeah, good idea. I always thought the same thing. I was always irritated when I was a kid by watching these videos for head demo's and the heads were always on these top of the line expensive drums that most of us don't have or didn't have at the time.

Now, about the Hydraulics. I have used them many times. They aren't a bad head but they are very shrt and dead. That's what they are made to sound like. I always used them with clear Ambassadors or G1's. Some have argued that Hydraulics sound their best with a thin head on the bottom such as a Diplomat or the Evans Resonant heads. I have read that this combo was to have the bottom somewhat tighter than usual and the tops tuned medium. I don't know. I never tried this combo as I was always happy with the combo that I was using.
 
I have a 10" hydraulic that I'd love to trade for an ambassador or g1 of the same size... anyone?
 
If you research which heads top professionals use in all different genres, I doubt you'll find any of them using Evans hydraulics. Nuff said. If you want to deaden your drums and have them on a practice kit or something, go for it. If you're looking for a quality sound that makes your drums punch and sing with tone, look elsewhere.
 
I'll vote "thumbs down" also. Evans Hydraulic heads will suck all the life out of those Oak Customs. 'Bout the only thing "more muffled" would be a Pinstripe head AND a pillow in the drum.
 
If you research which heads top professionals use in all different genres, I doubt you'll find any of them using Evans hydraulics. Nuff said. If you want to deaden your drums and have them on a practice kit or something, go for it. If you're looking for a quality sound that makes your drums punch and sing with tone, look elsewhere.

Many pros use them. Sal Abrusacato from Life Of Agony is just one of many. They aren't as popular today as they were in years past but.... todays pro metal/ rock drummers trigger, gate, compress and process their drums to the point where they sound like wet cardboard when they use unmuffled heads so.... what's the difference? Funny how some guys boast about their drums being wide open but all you hear through the PA is baaaap, with a little reverb behind it.
 
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Many pros use them. Sal Abrusacato from Life Of Agony is just one of many. They aren't as popular today as they were in years past but.... todays pro metal/ rock drummers trigger, gate, compress and process their drums to the point where they sound like wet cardboard when they use unmuffled heads so.... what's the difference? Funny how some guys boast about their drums being wide open but all you hear through the PA is baaaap, with a little reverb behind it.

A dirty little secret is that no matter what some drummers may endorse or use live, a lot of their recordings are made with coated Ambassadors over clears. In every genre.
 
Many pros use them. Sal Abrusacato from Life Of Agony is just one of many. They aren't as popular today as they were in years past but.... todays pro metal/ rock drummers trigger, gate, compress and process their drums to the point where they sound like wet cardboard when they use unmuffled heads so.... what's the difference? Funny how some guys boast about their drums being wide open but all you hear through the PA is baaaap, with a little reverb behind it.

Well, if many pros use them, they have escaped me. The difference is that of the many top pros I know and have conversed with, the name of the game is tone, resonance and volume, both live and in the studio. The sounds they get need to have a good starting point so that all the processing works to get incredible tom sounds. Like the saying goes, crap in....crap out. I recently had the good fortune of sitting in on a recording session in Nashville with some great players. There was a studio kit already there that was fitted with clear emoperors over clear ambassadors on the toms. Guys like Paul Leim, Eddie Bayers, Gene Crissman had all used the kit and it was wide open. No muffling whatsoever. The engineer commented on having maximum tone and resonance to get the tom sounds he was looking for. If Evans hydraulics are used in similar situations, they are surely a minority.
 
I'll vote "thumbs down" also. Evans Hydraulic heads will suck all the life out of those Oak Customs. 'Bout the only thing "more muffled" would be a Pinstripe head AND a pillow in the drum.

I agree totally. Have used them back in the day for dead 80's sound. If that is what you are after, ROCK ON. If they were my Oak Customs I would put G2 clears or coated on them and let them sing.
 
I recently had the good fortune of sitting in on a recording session in Nashville with some great players. There was a studio kit already there that was fitted with clear emoperors over clear ambassadors on the toms. Guys like Paul Leim, Eddie Bayers, Gene Crissman had all used the kit and it was wide open. No muffling whatsoever. The engineer commented on having maximum tone and resonance to get the tom sounds he was looking for.

That's interesting--and gratifying--to hear.
 
That's interesting--and gratifying--to hear.

Yeah, they also use clear ambassadors on the toms as well. It was a DW kit, 10" and 12" rack toms and a 14" floor tom. The players brought there own snares and cymbals. Here's an interesting factoid, one of the drummers, Gene Crissman, who was a great guy and really really cool with me, brought in his own DW snare. He was a member of the legendary Memphis boys that recorded with Elvis and Carl Perkins back in the day. Anyway, I spent the day with him and helped him set up his gear. When he got his snare out, a 5.5x14 maple DW, I was expecting it to sound really good. To my surprise, he slapped an O ring on it and played it for the engineer. It sounded OK, but nowhere near what I expected....much more muffled and flat sounding.

I thought, OK...this is how they get that sound. He recorded the tunes and went on his way. The next day, we went back in the studio for some more dubbing and the engineer had replaced the snare sound with a sample. He said that he preferred a more open sounding snare with more pop and tone and didn't care for the muffled sound of Gene's snare. Interesting huh? Maybe that's not preferred across the board, but the open sounding snare did sound much much better.
 
Evans hydraulics? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Worst sound ever. Yuch. What a carbuncle on an otherwise fine product line. They suck. Plus they're ugly. And they smell bad. I hate em, hate em I tell ya!
 
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