New Head Suggestions?

TheRadBaron

Junior Member
I have an old swingstar set and was wondering what you guys think are good replacement heads. I need both top and bottom for all oof the drums; snare, toms, and all. Heard that Remo Black Suedes with Pinstripe resonants are a good combo. But, I'd like input from all of you guys.
 
Those drums are pretty dead so to maximize the tone and resonance, I'd stick with single ply Remo Ambassadors, Evans G1, or Aquarian equivalent (I'm not familiar with Aquarian but take it on faith that they're as good as anyone). Whatever single ply I picked, I'd use them top and bottom - clear bottom and either clear or coated on top. Remember that if it's too much resonance, you can always apply tape or Moongels to tame them down, but if you get Pinstripes or any other kind of pre-muffled head, there's nothing you can do to get that resonance back. Food for thought.

On the other hand, if you're on a budget and can't afford to replace heads every year, two-ply Remo Emperors, Evans G2s, or some Aquarian equivalent will last a lot longer but be slightly less lively to play on. It's another one of those trade-offs. That's only for the batters, though; I'd still use single ply clears on the bottoms.

For the snare, I'd use a two-ply Remo Emperor, Evans G2, or Aquarian equivalent. I always use coated on snare even though I never use brushes.

And on the bass drum batter side, I personally like the Remo PS3. For the kick reso side I use a Remo Ambassador Clear, but I've used PS3s and like them too. Again, I'm not familiar with Aquarian heads but always see good reviews of them. I've tried a few different Evans bass drum heads and haven't liked any of them as much as the PS3. For toms and snares, I'm okay with Remo or Evans but kicks gotta be Remo for me.
 
Personally I don't like Evans too much, and the evans heads I have on my toms suck... I wouldn't say the resonance was too dead yet... so I don't quite know yet.. Although I have that exact set up for my bass drum. As for single ply heads, I really don't know much about aquarians either. Ambassadors are probably the closest to the sound I want. Something a bit more muffled, but not too much. Something in between like say black suede and the Ambassadors would be the ideal sound. Is there any head between ambassadors and black suede in terms of sound?
 
... I wouldn't say the resonance was too dead yet...
What I said was that your drums are of the dead variety. It's how they're constructed - head choice is independent of that characteristic, though you can minimize or maximize your drums' tendency to be dead with head choice. If you want to maximize their tonal characteristics, go with a more resonant head (read: not Pinstripes).
...Ambassadors are probably the closest to the sound I want. Something a bit more muffled, but not too much. Something in between like say black suede and the Ambassadors would be the ideal sound. Is there any head between ambassadors and black suede in terms of sound?
Dude, Ambassadors are among the least muffled of all the head choices you could make, which is why I recommended them for your set. If you want something a bit more muffled but Ambs are the closest to what you want ...? Honestly, you've just contradicted yourself. Seems to me the issue is you want someone to tell you black suede heads are the way to go. Hey, go for it. But you'll still need to decide between Ambassador and Emperor versions...

I'd steer you toward the Evans site because they do a good job describing what types of heads do what, but since you think they suck, I won't bother.

remo.com
evansdrumheads.com
aquariandrumheads.com
 
Last edited:
Well... thank you Mike. I know now that they are of a "dead" variety. For ambassadors, would you recommend for both top and bottom? Also for my snare strainer, its a 42 strand. Is that too many? At this point I really don't like Evans.... But it is just the experience I've had with certain heads. I dislike certain Evans heads which is why I steer away from them. But, I'll check them out. By the way, have you ever heard of attack heads? I've seen them but never heard them.
 
Aquarian are just as good (IMO a little better) than the other guys. A black suede anything over pinstripes would very likely objectively sound awful. Since you & me dislike Evans, I'll list Remo and Aquarian models. If you want something a little easier to tune & more durable, a 2-ply batter head on your toms is probably what you want. I have Aquarian Super-2s, but their Response-2s are a little thicker & the same specs as a Remo Emperor. Clear heads give you more attack & clear tone, coated give you a bit more of the shells sound & a "sweeter" tone, and black or white suede are inbetween. For tom resos, Classic Clear or clear Ambassadors are basically what you want unless you want a lot of shell tone.

For kick, there is really nothing like than a Powerstroke 3 (or Aquarian Force I). They're easy to tune for single-ply and muffled just right so any more muffling is adjustable by you (you will need more muffling, probably).

For snare, there's Classic Clear Snare & Hazy Ambassador for the bottom. Top head depends. I like my snare with some classic ring to it so I usually use an Ambassador X unmuffled, which is a great multipurpose snare head. For metal, I usually use a Clear Controlled Sound (or Classic Clear w/ power dot). For a thicker snare sound, I use a Vintage Ambassador. I don't go any thicker than that.

As far as snare wires go, the ones you have are probably fine. But if you have money to spare, Puresound Super 30s are very nice snares with 30 strands, which is IMO a much more reasonable number than 42.
 
Last edited:
If you want to be really cool - put black dots on top and bottom. You could put a PowerStroke 3 on your batter side bass drum, but put a black dot for the reso on front. Snare can go with a snare side ambassador and either a coated ambassador or black dot on top. The reason I recommend this is because nobody will have this sound within a 200 mile radius of you - you will be unique!

Dig this sound from Tony Williams with his quintet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTUBecbl7Gs

You can thank me later ;)
 
wow o.o that is an awesome sound. That is awesome.... amazing... I've changed my mind. Those black dots are the way to go for me.
 
Back
Top