help picking out resos for the toms..

I want to replace my stock resonant heads and would like to hear some opinions. I put coated vintage emperor's on the batters about two weeks ago and I'm leaning towards clear ambassadors for the resos.
I'd like to stick with Remo and was wondering about Pinstripes or clear emp's. Pinstripes are cheaper in price and I think GC has a Labor day sale on them.
Its like 57 bucks before taxes on the clear ambs for my 10" 12" 13" and 16"

I'd personally stick with ambs for a reso. I find emps, pinstripes etc are too heavy. YMMV though......it's not like it hasn't been done before. I just prefer a thinner head on the resonant side.

I've only ever used Ambassadors myself no matter what I've got on the batters. They seem to work really well. There is an interesting Bob Gatzen video where he demonstrates what effect the reso has on the sound. Oddly, going to a Diplomat weight mutes the drum. I would have expected the opposite.

single ply clear regardless of brand

If you want to stay with Remos, the 10mil Ambassador would be my choice for the resonant side.

Dennis

evans ec reso

I currently have them on my kit and they provide a pure deep tone with just the right amount of sustain without much sympathetic ringing. (meaning when you hit your kick the reso's don't mumble too much about it)
The downside is that you lose out on a tiny bit of projection because of the dampening ring.

Easy to tune - nice pure deep tone.

Clear Ambassadors is a very common choice and thousands of working drummers can't be wrong... or clear G1s if you're an Evans guy like me.

Most guys use clear Ambassadors or clear G1s, which are 10mil heads. Some guys like to use thinner resos such as clear Diplomats or Evans Resonant Glass, which are 7mil heads.

The 7mil heads are very slightly brighter and will give a shorter sustain.

Coated versions of either will give a warmer sound. (Bonham's setup on his wood kits was coated Emperors over coated Ambassadors.)

The EC resos sound nice, if you like the sound, which is significantly darker than either of the above.

It's quite rare to use a 2-ply (such as Emperors or Pinstripes) head for a reso. It's an old trick to use a 2-ply head for the reso on a floor tom to cut its sustain. For smaller toms, though, it makes for a very dead drum.

well, with the coated vintage emp's on the batter, I'm already cutting down the sustain. I'll probably get the clear amb's. I wish GC would have sales on things when I need them, after all it's all about what I want Hey thanks guys for your wise words

Just remember: in general, more mass = more sustain. The only time this does not apply is with 2 ply heads... in the case of 2 ply heads like Emperors and Pinstripes, the 2 plies interacting cuts the sustain even though there is more mass overall.

Pinstripes as resos will likely make your toms sound like cardboard boxes... I don't really like them for batters either - so maybe I'm biased... lol.

I would avoid 2 ply heads as resos... if you need to cut overtones for some situations, get some moongel and stick with ambassador weight bottom heads.

bgdrum said:

well, with the coated vintage emp's on the batter, I'm already cutting down the sustain. I'll probably get the clear amb's. I wish GC would have sales on things when I need them, after all it's all about what I want Hey thanks guys for your wise words

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I often buy heads from drumsonsale.com, where the prices are decent to begin with and you can take another 10% off when you buy five or more (any brands/models, mix and match).