how often do u change your bottom heads?

How often do you guys change your bottom snare and tom heads? like never or when something tears it, or the same time you replace the top heads? does leaving the bottom heads on for a long time mess with the sound?
 
I tend to change out the stock heads, top and bottom, when I get a new drum. After that, I tend not to mess with the bottom heads unless they get damaged. Snare heads I change a little more frequently because of the friction between the snares and the head ... every four to six months if possible.

I would rate changing out stock reso heads as a much lower priority than changing out stock batter heads. They do affect sound, but not nearly as much as the batters do. As with batters, spending the money is a sound investment (no pun intended), but you can do well with stock resos for some time.
 
I think most guys change theirs every other time they change the batter heads.

While you may not see damage to a reso head like you do on a batter they take just as much if not more abuse from the air that is continually pushed in to the head to make it resonate when you hit the batter. You will notice a different sound and tone to your drums when you put new resonant heads on at least I do.

If you do allot of recording and playing out I'd probably swap them everytime I changed batter heads to keep the drums sounding their best.
 
I don't really have a set routine for it, but I'm guessing it averages out to once per year. Should probably be changed more often, but I'm a cheap and lazy bastard :)
 
If it's the stock, change it asap. Unless you are a recording/touring drummer, i wouldnt mess with it until your drum cannot stay in tune anymore, save your money.
 
I've never ever changed one. Probably never will. Most stock heads that come with any decent kit are fine for me these days.
 
I too change out stock heads immediately. As far as resos, for me i only change them if i'm experimenting w/ a new sound.

Clear over clear, coated over clear, coated over coated, etc, etc... That's just me.
 
Every other batter head change, or if there's difficulty getting the lower head to get in tune with itself before then. (Case in point: I'm half done with recording an album. Reheaded the 10, 14, 16 batters this weekend; the 12" was having difficulty settling in so I just replaced both heads. Everything's good now).
 
Usually every 2nd or 3rd time I change the batter heads I will change the resos. Typically the same for the snare, but I replace snare heads more frequently so this happens at a faster rate.

This isn't a must though. As long as the drums still sound as good as they should, tune up well and stay in tune, then it isn't exactly a necessity. We drummers, especially gearhead drummers like myself, often get wrapped up in various aspects of our equipment, but in reality, all that matters is the sound.
 
Oops, forgot to put this in my last post...

If you've waited a long time since you last swapped out the resos, try replacing them and I bet you'll be amazed at how much better your drums sound.
 
Good question. That reminds me: I'm still using the original Ambassador clear reso's on my toms from 2000! Time for a change!
 
I left the stock reso tom heads (G1s) on my Starclassic maple kit for a few years (I think about four years). I play daily and hit plenty hard enough. I finally changed them and put new G1s in their place (without changing the coated G2 batters I'm using). There was absolutely NO difference in sound whatsoever - ZERO. And I can tune and hear well enough to notice if there is a difference. Now that I've learned this, I don't know if I'll ever change the resos again, at least for a very long time.

I don't change the batter heads much at all either, unless I'm trying to get a different type of sound. I strongly doubt that anyone hearing my drums can tell by listening how long I've had the same batter heads. It's too expensive, at least for me, to frequently replace perfectly good heads that still work great.

I wonder how much of the whole thing about replacing heads all the time has to do with marketing and image. I don't think all the classic drum greats, or the many current drummers outside of the mainstream pop/rock culture, would necessarily subscribe to this trend.

Reso snare heads do probably need to be replaced more often. I think they have a greater susceptibility to ending up broken someway. I like to carry an extra bottom snare head just in case.
 
FWIW: I read in MD back in the '80s that John Densmore from The Doors changed his heads once, but hated them so he put his old ones back on! Not sure, but he may have used the same heads for all of The Doors recorded works.
 
Not often. I have changed the reso heads, but mainly because I'm trying to experiment with different sounds.

When I do get a sound and tuning I like, I rarely change the reso heads. I'm on my third set of batters and my kit sounds absolutely perfect (even if I don't play perfect). Maybe others have a better ear than I do and have to change the heads every other time, but I for one don't need to do that.
 
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