Best Head for Acrolite

ludwigzildjian

Junior Member
Just got an Acrolite from the 70's, 65 + 15 shipping on Ebay. Right now it has an Evans Ec1 coated On the the batter and the stock 1 ply ludwig head on the reso, any advice on what head could make it sound better or should i let it be?
 
With Acro's the further you stay from the pre-muffled batters the better. Acro's have a nice natural warm dry full tone and can sound woody if tuned right. I would go no thicker than a G2 Coated or Emperor Coated on the batter, & an Ambassador Snare or Evan's Hazy 300 are perfect for reso's.

A couple of combo's that worked well for me with my Acrolite

J1 over Ambassador Snare (very lively and sensitive)
Ambassador Coated & Emperor Coated over Ambassador snare (classic dry snare sound with lots of pop, also a perfect combo for achieving a loose tuned fat wet sound)
Aquarian Textured Coated also work well as a batter, as did a FiberSkyn FA. Although the Fiberskyn was lacking the classic Acrolite pop a bit, it did work great in a jazz setting.

Never tried it but a Coated CS Black Dot my be interesting to experiment with if you're looking for focus with out muffling out what little ring the drum naturally has around the edges.
 
right now i have an extra emperor x, would that sound good? and r u suggesting i put 2 heads on at 1 time? (emperor, and, ambassador)
 
right now i have an extra emperor x, would that sound good? and r u suggesting i put 2 heads on at 1 time? (emperor, and, ambassador)

Nope, sorry, just one on at a time - Emperor or Ambassador. It's possible an Emperor X might sound good. Personally they're a little thicker than what I would use but most important with an Acrolite, since the drum tends to be dry it's a good bet to stay away from the premuffled specialty heads as batters like Power Stroke 3's, 4's, Coated Pintripes, Evans EC1, EC2, ST Dry, etc.
 
single ply coated head, doesn't matter the mfg ....single ply-coated, is all you ever need! :)
 
There's an Acrolite at my school. Coated Ambassador on batter side and ambassador snare on resonant side. It sounds amazing...
 
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Classic combo for Acros is coated Ambassadors for batter, 3mil for snare side. I like an extra crispy sound, so use diplomat topside, 2mil hazy on bottom, Puresound concert snares.
 
My preference for heads for metal shell snares is an Evans Power Centre reverse dot batter and Evans hazy 300 snare side. I prefer the Evns Power Centre to the Remo CS because the Evans head has a dot with slots cut out of it. This allows the dot to flex more with the main ply of them head and it doesn't have the reduced bounce when hit on the dot like the Remo CS does.
 
I am using a G1 360 coated on top and a diplomat on bottom and love it. I really like the 360 Evans G1 coated. Oh, and while I'm at it, I use a 42 strand Gibralter snare strainer. Best my snare ever sounded.

I know I know... REMO AND EVANS TOGETHER OMG!101!!!
 
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