Evans new Level 360 drum heads

When depth of tone is the primary focus, Black Chromes are my go-to choice (seriously deep!).

Cheers!

Do you have any coated heads with the same tonal qualities as the Black Chrome? I like the idea of the black chrome heads and have read great reviews.....................just wouldn't look very good on my champagne sparkle kit.
 
Will there ever be an Evans version of a fiberskyn type head?

We're always developing new things but have no intention of duplicating pre-existing products. I can't give much more detail than that at this time.

Do you have any coated heads with the same tonal qualities as the Black Chrome? I like the idea of the black chrome heads and have read great reviews.....................just wouldn't look very good on my champagne sparkle kit.

Unfortunately we don't. The next closest option would be either the Onyx heads (frosted coating over white) then frosted EC2S, though these aren't nearly as deep in sound as the Black Chromes.
 
So much talk... Sure, the new collar is nice. But the new clear G2 that I bought has too much material on one side so to speak, so that specific part of the drum head requires ridiculous tension to even touch the bearing edge properly. Obviously it sounds like shit, it just can't be tuned. The drum head itself is perfectly round, so I don't think it's damaged from handling.

Ordered it online from Thomann, so I can't really go back to the store. I'm not going to demand them to send me another head either, since it's probably not their fault. Does Evans ship out refunds world wide?
 
So much talk... Sure, the new collar is nice. But the new clear G2 that I bought has too much material on one side so to speak, so that specific part of the drum head requires ridiculous tension to even touch the bearing edge properly. Obviously it sounds like shit, it just can't be tuned. The drum head itself is perfectly round, so I don't think it's damaged from handling.

Ordered it online from Thomann, so I can't really go back to the store. I'm not going to demand them to send me another head either, since it's probably not their fault. Does Evans ship out refunds world wide?

Drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll make sure that we get you a replacement through our distributor.
 
These heads have tempted me to try them out for my next set of tom heads. I've been playing Aquarian for years (understandable, since in my opinion, they have an unbeatable sound, and have had something like this '360' thing for a loooong time! :). I've been turned off Remo for good after too many dud heads and after hearing a Classic Clear and Ambassador on the same drum.

The store I usually buy heads from doesn't do Evans though, so I might be out of luck unless someone else can offer me a better price (and that includes the cost of petrol :). I first heard the good old G2/G1 combo several years ago and the sound always stuck in my head because it was so nice, along with a few different combinations of bass drum heads. I even used a heated up spike to poke holes around the outside of a Remo Ambassador many years ago to emulate the dry snare head I'd seen someone using :).

Sorry, I'm waffling a bit! Hopefully I'll get a chance to listen to these soon!
 
It's a small, local store in NSW, Australia. The other store I tend to frequent is the Drum Shop at Newcastle, and I'm pretty sure they stock Evans, but that one is a much further drive for me so that's where the cost of petrol or shipping comes into play :) Most of my purchases have been cymbals from the Newcastle store as they are a Paiste distributor.
 
I'm also an Aquarian guy, making a tentative shift to Evans.

Black Chromes on top
Resonant Black on bottom

Will try them for the first time this weekend.

I'm coming from Aquarian Performance II tops, Hi-Freq black bottoms on my other kits.
 
I'm also an Aquarian guy, making a tentative shift to Evans.

Black Chromes on top
Resonant Black on bottom

Will try them for the first time this weekend.

I'm coming from Aquarian Performance II tops, Hi-Freq black bottoms on my other kits.

I have given some thought to switching to Evans too. I currently play mostly Aquarian Modern Vintage on everything. I just don't like their lack of availability around here.

I usually stock up on them when I go to visit the in-laws in Minneapolis. Ellis Drum Shop has a huge Aquarian selection.

Out of necessity, I recently had to get an Evans G2 for the rack tom on the church kit. I was pleasantly surpirsed at how quickly and easily it tuned up--and how it stayed tuned up.
 
I'm impressed overall! You don't have to "break them in" and seat them like other brands. You just stick them on and tune them. I still give them a little push while tuning, the re-tune and BAM... great tone!

Still, Evans offers nothing as rich-sounding as the Remo Renaissance heads. Frankly, I just take Remos (or old Evans) and go around the rim and stretch around the collar and it pretty much does what the 360 process does. "Perfectly round and level" doesn't really matter if your drums aren't perfectly level. ALL triple-flanged hoops have imperfect level and even a lot of die cast hoops aren't perfectly level, so basically you take a "perfectly level" head and bend it to fit your hoops. Not that I'm saying it's a gimmick, I just don't consider it a "game-changer" as they say.
 
I'm impressed overall! You don't have to "break them in" and seat them like other brands. You just stick them on and tune them. I still give them a little push while tuning, the re-tune and BAM... great tone!

Still, Evans offers nothing as rich-sounding as the Remo Renaissance heads. Frankly, I just take Remos (or old Evans) and go around the rim and stretch around the collar and it pretty much does what the 360 process does. "Perfectly round and level" doesn't really matter if your drums aren't perfectly level. ALL triple-flanged hoops have imperfect level and even a lot of die cast hoops aren't perfectly level, so basically you take a "perfectly level" head and bend it to fit your hoops. Not that I'm saying it's a gimmick, I just don't consider it a "game-changer" as they say.

Glad to hear that your experience with them has been great!

Have you tried our J1 Etched heads? That's what I'd put up against the Renaissance for the sake of comparison.

With regards to the consideration of Level 360 as a "game-changer," I'm certainly not going to try and change your mind, because that's not the point. Plenty of people do think it's changing the game (many of them top level artists that have been and while continue switching to Evans as a result).

At the end of the day, our Level 360 collar provides the most accommodating fit across the board. It works better with out-of-round drums because of the increased surface area on the playing surface. It accommodates various diameters of drums (and there's quite a bit of variance out there!) as well as the variety of bearing edge cuts. It's no less accommodating than our old collar shape, so there's really nothing to lose.

Again, glad to that you experienced the ease of tuning and quality of tone. Cheers!
 
We got new clear G2's for the toms at church, and they sound great. Evans and Mapex Saturns...what could be better?

Peace and goodwill.
 
I just happened to come across this article in DRUM! Magazine about G1's and the Level 360....

http://www.drummagazine.com/gear/post/evans-g1-series-drumheads/

From the review:
Sure enough, the heads sounded and felt great at both high and low tunings, but after some experimentation, one thing did jump out at me. I cranked the coated G1s up nice and high, and they gave me a pretty remarkable sweetness that I hadn’t heard from these drums before. When I tried to get them back down low, however, I couldn’t really get my 14" floor tom to sound like it had before. There was a very strange, overtone-laden decay that just wouldn’t go away no matter what I tried.

Upon further inspection, I could see that a part of the collar was no longer in contact with the bearing edge. Now, this only happened on the floor tom – and only this floor tom – but when I looked closer, it seemed like the playing surface of the head may have in fact been a little bit too large for the shell. I removed the rim and tried to reposition the head, and got the same result. Even so, it still tuned well enough, and it sounded fine despite the issue. I couldn’t replicate the problem with a different drum or a different head, so I have to assume it was simply some inconsistency between the two.
 
Have you tried our J1 Etched heads? That's what I'd put up against the Renaissance for the sake of comparison.

Well, the problem is, they don't come in the variety of weights that the Remos do. You get Diplomats, Ambassadors and Emperors which I've used all of on various kits. Generally, I like the Ambassadors on both sides of the rack toms and an Emperor/Diplomat combo for Floor toms. Now the EC series does feature the etched surface and the EC reverse dot is an AMAZING snare head, if you're looking for a controlled response that doesn't kill the overtones but controls them. I'm still enjoying my Evans heads for now, but I might have to get me some Renaissance heads when I go back into the studio. When I used them on my old Rockstar DX kit, it gave them a much more "expensive" and rich sound that no other heads could do. I know that Rockstars are not really supposed to sound "rich" but that's what I got from them.

Until I land an endorsement deal (if that ever happens), I'll keep experimenting. :)
 
Now the EC series does feature the etched surface and the EC reverse dot is an AMAZING snare head, if you're looking for a controlled response that doesn't kill the overtones but controls them.

Just to clarify- the coated versions of the EC heads are actually frost coated, not etched. The J1 etched heads are the only heads on the market that go through a media-blasting process to achieve the unique tonal and textural characteristics.

Cheers!
 
I'm giving the Level 360's a try for my new old Acrolite. I'm putting a coated G1 PC reverse dot over a Hazy 300. Last time I tried an Aquarian texture coated reverse dot on my Pork Pie. It's OK. Those Aquarian heads take a little time to get stretched out and sounding good. I'm hoping this Evans combo will blow me away because I'm doing some recording tomorrow. I'll have my review tomorrow...

Add: Well, I spent a little time getting the new heads on. The Hazy 300 turned out to be a Clear 300. No biggie. That head went on easily and seated very quickly. The batter head took a little adjusting to get it to sit evenly on the bearing edge. It tuned up very easy though, and it took no time to tune it up to where I liked it. The HD Dry that I put on my Gretsch snare awhile back went on really easy too, which was surprising considering what a problem I have putting Ambassadors on that drum because it's a little bit out of round. I had to mess around with the tuning on that Aquarian head I recently put on my Pork Pie for quite awhile before I got it the way I like it. I'm going to try this Power Center Reverse Dot on the Pork Pie next time. I have nothing against the good old Ambassador, but I need more durability in the center of the head and this Evans head sounds good and just tuned right up. Nice heads, Evans.
 
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Got back from testing out my Black Chromes over Resonant Blacks this weekend.

I love this head combination.

I might have to try these I've heard a ton of people rave about this combo. I haven't tried them yet because I didn't think they'd look good on my old kit but they'd prob look good on my new Pewter Sparkle kit.
 
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