Varied Gauge Heads

gretschandy

Junior Member
I don't know if this has come up before- I had a look through, but couldn't find anything- but I'm thinking with my guitar brain.

I've got a new Gretsch USA Custom on the way and was looking into skins for it. I've used Evans for years and am really happy with them, but was looking at the different weight single ply heads (G1, G12, G14) and thinking it could work well using different weights for different size drums, in the same way guitarists use heavier strings for lower pitches.

Has anyone experimented with this?

I'm getting 10", 12" and 15" toms. I figured we could get better pitch variation and maintain consistent tension across the drums! My concern is that the tone of the heads might vary, rather than just the pitch, meaning a miss-matched set up?

I'm really tempted to invest in sets of all three gauges and a drum dial, and doing some proper experiments, but that could cost a bit!

Let me know you'r experience and thoughts!
 
The tone of the heads may or may not vary, depends on the drums. While I used to be a "one thickness head all around" type guy, lately I have come to realize that certain drums speak better with a different thickness head. For instance I just put clear G-2's on as batters on my Gurus, but I wasn't completely happy with the G2 on my 10" tom and realized that I prefer a 10 mil single ply head there. So I changed it back to a clear single ply, my default head. You can't really hear that much variation in head tone between the 10 and 12, but not all drums will respond that way. The only thing you can do is experiment and judge what you prefer on the kit you have.
 
Congrats on the new kit!

The idea of graduated thicknesses of drumheads across a kit is definitely something I support. I'm particularly a fan of the G1/G12/G14 configuration for 10/12/16" toms. I've found that the balance provided by the added thickness for the 12" and 16" drums helps to naturally mellow them out a bit without impacting the most basic performance characteristics.

Hope this helps,
Ben
 
I had g12s on my saturns - didn't like the rubbery attack. Also tried a g14 on a snare and tom - not my bag. A g1 might have a different attack but you could probably mix g12 and g14.
 
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