The Perfect Drum Head Material

Funny...

X-ray film is actually what players used in Cuba for years since they couldn't buy US-made goods. Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez told me stories of going to the garbage behind the local hospitals to collect old X-rays. He's cut them out and glue the film to the edge of an old drumhead with the center cut out. He's talk about playing on these heads that had images of broken bones and stuff. Things are getting a little better there now. We still can't sell our product in Cuba...but there are a few good samaritans that bring it down from Canada and get it into the hands of players.

Interestingly, the Evans blue Hydraulics are made using rejected and unprocessed X-ray film.

I'm still holding out for the day when somebody invents a biodegradable polyester film...maybe something that has a shelf-life of a few years but will disintegrate if thrown in a compost pile. There's already films that do this...just not any that work for drumheads.

Mike
Evans Senior Product Manager
 
X-ray film should be made of dupont mylar or equivalent material. They are at least 3-7mils thick. They probably could be used pretty well really.
 
X-ray film should be made of dupont mylar or equivalent material. They are at least 3-7mils thick. They probably could be used pretty well really.

Tama's stock heads are made of dupont mylar. Not the best heads around but that's probably not due to the materials used. Mylar is biaxially oriented PET film, the biaxial orientation gives it it's high tensile strength. If an x-ray film is made of something similar but without the biaxial orientation it might be worthless.

A little quote from our friend wikipedia:
boPET film has been used in the production of banjo & drumheads since 1958 due to its durability and acoustical properties when stretched over the bearing edge of the drum. They are made in single- and double-ply versions, with each ply being between 2 mils and 10 mils (0.05 – 0.25 mm) in thickness, with a clear or opaque surface, originally used by the company EVANS.
 
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