Evans G2 coated VS Evans EC2 drumheads?

Have played them both - EC2s on my kit at home, G2s on a set at church.

I chose coated EC2s on my set after coming off a well-played set of Pinstripes and deciding to switch to Evans. I had a recording project coming up and wanted the same sort of built-in tone control that the Pinstripes offered, but the EC2s sounded more tonal, with less thwack, with more of the drum's note.

The church set had coated G2s on them and they offered more response at the cost of more overtones. But in a live setting the overtones were not an issue and could be dialed back either with a small amount of muffling or at the board.

If I had it to do over I might have chosen clear EC2s, I got one for a 16" tom later and got a bit more attack out of the drum.

Having said that, I really enjoy the EC Reverse Dot Coated for my snare. I have read other comments here about loss of sensitivity and volume, and experienced neither with my snare (a very ringy, sensitive steel inverse bead shell).

If you like the response and tone of a single ply head, Evans also makes the EC1s, which are probably closest in performance to Powerstrokes.
 
If it's just those two... I'd g with the G2. The drums resonate and the sound just seems fuller, better. The EC2 just kills anything beyond the initial attack of the stick on the head.

I'd go with G2s and Pinstripes personally (And I do!). :)
 
For the types of music I play I use mostly clear batters, but I do also use Evans G2 coated on one of my kits. If you have difficulties tuning your drums, you should probably use EC2's. If you really want to hear what your drums sound like, use the G2 coated heads. Evans Hydraulic and EC2 batter heads will, for the most part, squelch most tuning inconsistencies. Overtones, as they call it, is primarily caused by bad tuning methods. If you have your heads in tune with themselves, you will not have bad overtones.

Just my opinion.
Dennis
 
mmm, I'm a little bit unsure about the EC2's. On that link if you watch the Dean Butterworth video, at the end he plays on his floor tom a bit and sounds too plasticky and attacky for my liking. I have shallow toms as it is and I think on my kit the EC2s would sound like a cheap electric kit sample with no resonance.
 
I play just the opposite of alparrot. I play coated G2's on my DW's at home and play EC 2's on the DW's at church. My DW's are in the power tom configuration and the churches are in the FAST tom configuration.

I like the G2's much better. More tone and volume. The EC2's have more attack. The church kit is my co-drummers so I dare not tune them, even though I am dying to. He also uses the Remo rings on them, but if I take them off they have some funky overtones and sound better with them on. Once again a tuning issue that could be easily solved, but they are not my drums and I am not going to tune them.

My power toms have G2's with no muffling and they sound real good!
 
alparrott said:
Having said that, I really enjoy the EC Reverse Dot Coated for my snare. I have read other comments here about loss of sensitivity and volume, and experienced neither with my snare (a very ringy, sensitive steel inverse bead shell).
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This is very interesting because my co-drummer has a beautiful DW EDGE snare with the same head and it is very dead and has no sensitivity (to the point where I can't even pull ghost strokes out of it). Once again, probably poor tuning. This snare is very staccato and that's pretty much it.

Maybe since the steel snare you have it on is ringy, the head has the perfect amount of muffling to get a sweet sound out of it.
 
I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of your guys' input and responses. I am new to the forum and to the world of drumming, ( 3 years ) and I look forward to sharing some more issues that will arise in the future, cause the more I try to learn new grooves, dynamics and snare rudiments and also experiment with different drum heads and tuning methods, gear ect, the MORE FRUSTRATED I get. Just saying thanks and I respect all of your opinions!
 
drumr0 said:
Maybe since the steel snare you have it on is ringy, the head has the perfect amount of muffling to get a sweet sound out of it.
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Could be. It's a generic, no-name ripoff of a Supraphonic, 5.5 deep, and I've got a 200 hazy on the bottom. I polished the thing up and replaced the broken lugs, and replaced the snare with a wider Snappy Snare. The thing is almost uncontrollable with a regular Ambassador on it, and I didn't like using rings on it. I had a Power Center on it, which was okay, but still ring for days, even when both heads were as well tuned as could be. Just a very live, ringy, reflective sound.

At one point I put a clear Ambassador with no muffling at all on the thing, just for fun. It was waaaaaay too much. Sounded like I was hitting the thing with an axe!

My next snare is likely to be a 7x13 or 6.5x13 in brass. I am looking forward to going back to a less muffled, thinner batter head.

But I was playing a 5.5x14 DW snare at GC with an EC RD head on it and got plenty of feel and response out of it too. Dunno. Maybe I just have too much high-end hearing loss...
 
freebirdgdw said:
EC2s AND Remo rings?! Is there ANY tone that comes out of them?!
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Not much, especially the snare. The toms aren't horrible, but bad enough. It's such a sweet kit too. The FAST tom sizes are 10, 12, and 14. The 14 is tuned about a quarter step below the 12. Just not enough separation for me. Basically, he is a 70's rock drummer and goes for that sound. He has a great selection of Zildjian A customs that are perfect for church.
 
Bildozer said:
Does anyone have an opinion on which of these drumheads they prefer?
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G2's hands down. The ec2's rings filter off WAY to much high end for my taste and in general are a bit muted. My personal preference is for single ply's over both of course.
 
freebirdgdw said:
mmm, I'm a little bit unsure about the EC2's. On that link if you watch the Dean Butterworth video, at the end he plays on his floor tom a bit and sounds too plasticky and attacky for my liking. I have shallow toms as it is and I think on my kit the EC2s would sound like a cheap electric kit sample with no resonance.
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For a recording project a while back I was looking for a head that would give me that perfect warm low end growl tom sound, kind of a Hydraulic vibe with a bit more attack and tone. I tried and EC2 on a whim and "plasticky" was my exact same impression. This was on a 16x16" 70's Gretsch stop-sign badge floor tom. That said I would go with a G2 over the EC2 any day of the week.
 
For a short sustain without the attack of a muted batter, use the EC2 or G2 on the bottom and keep the top reasonably unmuffled (G2 clear or G1 coated).
 
I just put the new EC2 SST's on my toms and I have to say that I will be going back to the G2's when these have worn themselves out. My toms, Renowns, sing pretty well as it is but the sound of the SST's is a little dead. I only play at home, so there is now crowd or soundman to please, but I just like the sound of the G2's much better. In between I had Remo Fibreskyns and they look pretty but not my cup of tea. I figure in six months or so I will be strapping on the new G2's.
 
I read this thread, and stupidly got evans EC2 coated heads. They really do make your to9ms sound dead. I thought with the right tuning they could be good, but they're really not. Then i got evans G2 clears :)
They sound brilliant, so if i were you id go with G2 clears and not the crappy, dead EC2's.
 
I would have to disagree with the naysayers of the EC2.

Although I haven't tried G2's, Coated EC2's made my drums sound the best they ever have paired with clear remo ambassadors for the resonant head. If you get each head in tune with itself there should be no problems.
I play a Mapex M Birch and have 5 toms, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16. I've even recorded with these heads and I couldn't be much happier.

They have a sound that isn't too different from Coated Remo Emperors, just ever so slightly more dampened.

Edit* They are the new EC2's btw, with different dampening
 
I currently use Coated G2's and just love them. One thing I noticed about them compared to the Coated Emperor's is that I don't have to tune that much once finger tightened which I love (it's the sound I love) and was a trip for me because I was use to getting a bit more work into the Emperor head when done finger tight. Love the G2 and am so eager to try the EC2 again...Haven't used them for a good while, especially when I really didn't know how to tune, but it'll be very interesting to see how they sound after years of not using them and finally being descent at tuning now.
 
I tried the EC2's on the Mapex Saturn Pro kit at church, but they were not on there very long. I much prefer the G2 sound. All of my toms have them. Peace and goodwill.
 
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