G1 on Snare Trouble

mmulcahy1

Platinum Member
I just switched out batter heads on my maple snare drum. I had an Ambassador on it which was sounding pretty good but was looking really beat up - even had a little 3 inch dish in the center of the head from being played.

Anyway, I got the new head on and tuned it up to where (I believe) it should be - never really had any problems in the past. When played softly, it sounds pretty good. But, when I lay into it, it sounds like I'm hitting the bottom of a tin can (...Doink...). I took the head off and put it back on. Followed all the right procedures and ...Doink...!!

I thought it may be my rezo. So, I played with that a little - from what I could tell, this head really didn't need any adjusting.

Am I doing something wrong or do you think I just have a bad head?

Frustrating!!

Thanks everybody.
 
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too thin, get a G2 or something similar, maybe a G12 or G14

F
 
too thin, get a G2 or something similar, maybe a G12 or G14

F

My Ambassador played just great and the G1 is "basically" the same head. I thought I'd try a G1 because my toms have Evans heads and they sound fantastic!
 
Its not the head its the tuning, simple as that.
A G1 is a little drier than an Amb but basically the same head.
Work with your reso/batter relationship and the syncing up between them.

As a start:
reso = medium tight to tight, batter = medium, work from there.
Most (many) snare issues can be dealt with via the reso.
 
It's possible you got a bad head. It may also not be tight enough or stretched enough.

Come to think of it, when I seated the head there was almost no cracking sound when I pushed down. I even went as far as to place my knee into the head and apply all my body weight... 195 lbs. worth.

I used to always tune to the same tension, but you have to learn to tune the head to the drum, not just what you know/think to be right.

That's an issue I'm having. If I get any loser on on the tension, the drum sounds terrible - like it's begging to be tighter. I can go about 1/8 to 1/4 turn higher and it sounds like I just shot up into the stratosphere.
 
Work with your reso/batter relationship and the syncing up between them.

As a start:
reso = medium tight to tight, batter = medium, work from there.
Most (many) snare issues can be dealt with via the reso.

Playing around with my reso snare head - truth-be-told - kind of scares me. As far as I can tell, this head sounds to be in the right place on the drum. And the snare wires are right where I like them. Of course, the new batter head could have changed that relationship, huh?

Why couldn't this be my 8" tom. When that gets messed up I'm not that worried about it.
 
It is quite possible that you received a bad head from Evans, I've had a few which I returned to the Five Star shop where I bought them. Mine were G2 coated and clear heads and from the feedback from the guys at the shop, mine were not the only returns.

I would take the G1 off the drum and re-seat and tune it. If you don't have better results, return it for something different, maybe a Remo Ambassador, lol.

I don't know if it matches your type of music, but on most of my snare drums I use an Evans Power Center Reverse Dot batter head.

Dennis
 
It is quite possible that you received a bad head from Evans, I've had a few which I returned to the Five Star shop where I bought them. Mine were G2 coated and clear heads and from the feedback from the guys at the shop, mine were not the only returns.

I would take the G1 off the drum and re-seat and tune it. If you don't have better results, return it for something different, maybe a Remo Ambassador, lol.
Sounds like a great shop. I've only been able to return heads (all with coating issues) by calling/emailing Evans directly. Same with Aquarian. Aquarian was much more responsive (i.e. ROY BURNS!) although both did follow through. Returning a head to a brick and mortar or online store because it doesn't sound good might be a hard one if there isn't a very good relationship in place already.

I don't know if it matches your type of music, but on most of my snare drums I use an Evans Power Center Reverse Dot batter head.

I currently have a G1, G2 and Power Center Reverse Dot. all coated, on 3 different snares (Remo CS Underside Dot and Aquarian Modern Vintage on another). I bought the G1 because I'm working through some brush studies off of the Brush Secret DVD as well as the Ed Soph Evans YT videos and wanted to go for a similar sound palette. The G2 has always been a winner on my Pork Pie 5 x 13 which seems to favor this head for the sound I want. The Power Center I've used before with mixed results sound wise but it's sounding very nice after a few days break in period.

The G1 sounds good on my Acrolite but - not a love thing yet. The coating is holding up better than the Ambassador that was last on there (I play a bit of brushes on it) but it's not getting the sound I want. I'm going to return to a single ply Aquarian choice (Either Satin TC or Studio-X) for the next head. In the meantime, it's not bad and is playable for the majority of the situations I'm using it for.

G1's have been the more challenging head for me but I can still get it to sound good.

The OP mentions being scared to mess with his reso. Might I suggest going one step further and replacing the reso and start experimenting? We as drummers need to go through this process many times so we can get this skill under our hands and in our ears. Lots of time it's trial and error. It seems like a small investment to be able to get head changes consistent through our playing career.
BTW - if that Amb had a 'dimple' in the middle, it was wasted way past when it should have been changed. I've never played a drum with a head in that condition that I felt could be used professionally for my work and I'm not the hottest pro on the block. Also I'm assuming that the resonant head is pretty old and worn out as well.

I say put some time into what you have in hand. Then replace the reso if it's still not working. Tune the drum all the way to finger tension and then carefully bring both up in pitch together until it starts to sound good. Then you can start to experiment with batter vs resonant tensions and tuning range 'sweet spots'. At the very least, change the snare side resonant at the same time you change the batter next time.

My .02

Jim
 
The OP mentions being scared to mess with his reso. Might I suggest going one step further and replacing the reso and start experimenting? We as drummers need to go through this process many times so we can get this skill under our hands and in our ears. Lots of time it's trial and error. It seems like a small investment to be able to get head changes consistent through our playing career.


Jim

This^^^^^^^^^

Try tuning a new reso about a fourth higher than the batter.
 
BTW - if that Amb had a 'dimple' in the middle, it was wasted way past when it should have been changed. I've never played a drum with a head in that condition that I felt could be used professionally for my work and I'm not the hottest pro on the block. Also I'm assuming that the resonant head is pretty old and worn out as well.

My .02

Jim

Just for clarity, The old batter head revealed the "dimple" after the head's tension was released - I try to monitor my heads pretty closely. While yes it was getting old, it had only been on my snare for 7 months... same as the resonant head. Like I said in my original post, the drum was sounding good. I decided to change it because it was getting a little beat up. And since that's the drum we all play the most I figured I would just make a routine change.

Hell, who knows, maybe I just got used to the sound degrading over time and thought it sounded good before. Maybe now it's just right.

I think I will spend some time playing around with it.

Thanks.
 
Hell, who knows, maybe I just got used to the sound degrading over time and thought it sounded good before. Maybe now it's just right.
Could be. If the old head was that worn and dead, the drum could sound completely different now that it has some tone again. You may still need to tweak the tuning more as well.
 
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