Can I...?

dudesikoff

Junior Member
Before I state my question I should introduce myself, my name is Chaz, and I have been drumming off an on for about 5 years. While I have been drumming for that long, I'm not that great, and don't have too much knowledge in drumming hardware.

Now to my question, "Can I use a batter head as a resonant, and if not, what would it sound like?"

I believe the answer is no, but let me get some more background info on why I am asking this.

I bought a set from my friend for $150, not a bad deal, it came with a double bass pedal, three toms, bass, snare, hi hat, crash, and crash ride. Anyways, when I first played these drums I instantly popped a hole into 2 of the 3 tom's heads. The heads hadn't been replaced in over 5 years so I figured it was time to replace the batters and resonants.

So I headed down to my local Guitar Center, and I told the "Drum Expert" I needed resonant and batter heads. He picked out I know for a fact a pack of Evans G2 Coated, which is a batter head. I don't remember off the top of my head what the "resonants" were. Because apparently his idea of what a batter is, is a coated head, which is clearly not true, because can't a batter be either coated, or clear, and he thought that a clear automatically meant it was a resonant.

I was skeptical of his theory, but went with it, just because I assumed he knew more than me...


So back to the issue at hand, I think I could have possibly purchased two packs of batter heads, one clear and one coated, I put the heads on my drums and they don't sound horrible, they sound somewhat bongo-y.

Could I have bought the wrong drum heads?
Are ANY batter/resonant heads interchangeable?
I looking on the Evans website, and they have a G1 under both the resonant and batter category, with the same product number, does that mean that the G1 is interchangeable?


Any info on the subject would be EXTREMELY appreciated.
 
Now to my question, "Can I use a batter head as a resonant, and if not, what would it sound like?"

With the exception of a Snare Side resonant head (2 or 3mils) there is no such thing as a batter or resonant head. A 10mil single ply head like a G1 or an Ambassador is commonly used as a reso head....but you'll note that they are commonly used as a batter head too.

I'm aware that Aquarian make a distinction and Evans may do with respect to their bass drum heads....but all in all, you can pretty much use any head as a batter or reso. What matters is, how does it sound?

A very common head combination is a 2 ply batter over a 1 ply reso. In your case a G2 over a G1. Personally I'd swap a set of the G2's for G1's as I prefer a 1 ply reso, but you wouldn't be the first person to use a double ply reso should you choose to keep what you have.
 
In short, a batter can be used as a resonant weather it is clear or coated. For instance my toms have a G2 Coated batter over a G1 Coated.

Now if a head explicitly states that it is a resonant, than I wouldn't put it on the batter side.
 
Putting heads on a kit ... it's all about getting a "good" sound. Now, "good" is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe "you're" the judge of "good sound". Or it might be a producer, of a "recording engineer", or a "sound man" ... maybe the general rule is "good" is the judgement of the guy with the "wallet" ....​
Now, that said ... you paid $150for a drum set ... so I'm assuming it's "not" a pro level kit ... so some head options may never sound "good" ... sometimes about all you can do is run Pinstripe heads batter ... and a single ply head reso. ..... and that's about as good as it's gonna get. Other times, an "extremely affordable" kit will have a little more flexibility than that.​
As far as the guy at GC, well, he's not necessarily "wrong" with his selection ... but certainly a little "narrow minded". I'd make a "horrible" GC employee (as far as the company mold goes) because I'd spend upwards of an hour talking to you about drum head selection. But you'd leave with a better understanding of head combo's ... and you'd hopefully have a "good" sound, when you re-head your kit.​
 
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