Birch Drumkit - What heads work best for you?

If you have a Yamaha Birch kit, it doesn't matter what heads you put on it. It'll sound great. Ok all joke aside. I had a BCAN kit and the heads I liked best were Aquarian Super 2 batters over G1 or equivalent on the toms. They came with PS 3s on the kicks which I replaced with Aquarian SK1s.
 
I've used both Yamaha's Stage Custom and Recording Customs over the years. Both birch and both with the same head combos. Aquarian Coated Force 10's on the tops and Classic Clear one ply on the bottoms.

With the kicks I'll use a Force II on the front, but for the batters I change it up. Clear Force I on the RC's and Clear Super Kick 10 on the Stage Customs.

The Stage Customs seem to like thicker heads, while the RC's can handle just about anything. I'm considering dropping the thickness on the RC's Toms and going from a Force 10 to a Response 2. It's basically the equivalent of an Emperor or G2.

Your drums are the Birch Customs correct? Those are the same shells at the RC's but without the interior finished and split lugs. I suggest going with a basic double ply on the tops: Response 2, Emperor, or G2 depending on brand preference.
 
I was listening to a clear super kick 10 on a 22" bass and thought it sounded amazing, nice to see a second vote for the Aquarian. Hopefully it sounds as good on a 20".

Also interesting about the force 10s. I like the sound of Remo Vintage Emperors which are 7.5 x 2 plies which are a bit heavier than normal Emperors but not 2 x 10 mil like the 10s. I'll check them out too.

My Yamaha kit is birch and from what I read very similar to the recording customs (same Hokkaido Birch Shells). Especially in the year range mine was made 2003-2004 ish, as I don't think they made the recording customs those years. I have seen others with no finish on the inside but mine has a dark almost black lacquer on the inside. I love the RC sound so I'm hoping to get close to it with these. They were like new when I bought them, all wrapped up in blankets tucked away in hard cases.

Can I ask you, on your RCs do you prefer the coated double ply too?

Thanks for the input I really appreciate it.
 
I have a Yamaha birch kit, and found Remo pinstripes work well for all tom and bass drum batter heads.
 
The older Yamaha Birch kits would come with Pinstripes from the factory. My RC's still have they original Yamaha Pinstripes on them (2005 & unused) & sound amazing. Have tried the G1/G2 combo but it doesn't come close to the Pinstripes.
 
I have a set of Japanese made RC's from the late 80's.
I too only use the kit for practice and recording. I would suggest a thick double ply coated head for the toms.

I've been using Aquarian Coated Force 10's on mine for the last few years. I cut a lot of records with it and always get compliments from producers and engineers on how they sound. I'm real happy with the tones, and they need almost no "studio magic" or processing on the back end of recording.

For the kick I use Aquarian clear Force 1's on the batter and Force 2's on the front. It's the same head, just Force 2's are black. These are equivalent to a Remo Powerstroke 3.
 
I just scored a Ludwig Classic Birch kit (it was an obscene deal). I had planned to go with my normal setup but a little modernized with coated 2 ply over clear heads (I normally use coated single ply over coated or clear singles).

The kit came with Black Dots that look pretty fresh and I have a gig on Friday so I'll probably try those out for fun. Get my Mickey Mouse on.
 
I also got an incredible deal on a Ludwig Classic Birch kit. I got them about 10 years ago from a drum shop that had used them as a demo kit. I got them for $500. The Ludwig Classic Birch kits were extremely underrated. They only had a few finishes. Mine are a beautiful sea blue finish. 10, 12,14,20 and snare. They have such a great tone and are the easiest drums to tune that I've ever had.

I have a Ludwig Classic Maple kit in WMP wrap that is my main kit. It cost $2,350, and it sounds great and looks great. But it doesn't sound that much better than my classic birch kit. I don't know why the classic birch kit didn't sell better.
 
I have a Stage Custom 10-12-16 and i went with Evans Ec2's on batters and G1's on resos

Sound is unreal and its what im sticking with from now on
 
+1 for the coated 2-ply over coated 1-ply. Works a treat
 
I also use G2 top and G1 bottom on my birch. In my case both sides are coated heads too, but that's a bit unusual.

Like a bunch of others have already said:

Me to.

Though my 10in has a clear bottom.
 
I ran coated Powerstroke 3 heads batter and clear Ambasador reso.
on my Yamaha RC's, and I really loved the sound.​
 
I have recently heard a few and I think I might try the vintage emperor clears over clear ambassadors. I was leaning towards coated but as far as I can tell these have the sound I'm looking for. I'll let you know how they sound.
 
I have an Eames birch kit always ran clear amb on reso,I liked coated ambs on batter,really brought out an aggressive attack,clear ambs on batter were good also,and Remo Renniscance on batter side really warmed them up.
 
Since I got my Mapex Mars last 2020 I've put some EC2 tom batter side and G1 Clear reso side, as for my snare got the EC2 Reverse Dot on the batter side and 300 on the snare side, and for my bass EMAD2 for the batter side and either G1 Clear or the mesh head
 
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