Remo smooth white Emperor

2bsticks

Platinum Member
I just put these on my Yamaha absolute drums again after not using them for a couple of years. Now that I know how to tune my drums to specific pitches that are in the drums sweet spot I have to say these heads sound really nice. Not sure if any of you use them but they are not as warm as regular coated heads and not as bright as the clear Emperors.
 
yeah, these heads are awesome! Deep sounding, but with bright attack at the same time. Plus, they're extremely durable not only to denting, but to tearing as well. I have yet to tear one of these heads. I had a set of these on my toms for 3 years with no dents or tears.

I just recently went back to these on my thin shelled maple kit after having pinstripes on for a while. The pinstripes are almost too deep and dark on the thin maple drums, but they do sound great, too. The smooth whites brighten up the attack, and open up the sound just a bit more- like more of a vintage sound.
 
I think the difference has more to do with the fact that each ply is 7.5mil instead of 7mil as you would find on clear or coated emperors.

There is no doubt in my mind the smooth white film sounds much different than clear. I think they are an extremely underrated drum head line out there.
 
I think the difference has more to do with the fact that each ply is 7.5mil instead of 7mil as you would find on clear or coated emperors.

There is no doubt in my mind the smooth white film sounds much different than clear. I think they are an extremely underrated drum head line out there.

I was unaware of that....

Now I'm debating on if my next head change will be Coated or Smooth White Emperors... or maybe even G2s. Hmm...
 
The Vintage Emp is a coated version of the smooth white.

Emps used to be SW with coating until sometime in the late 90's early '00's when Remo went with the clear film coated.

They are cool heads. Makes a pretty cool front head on a bass drum too.
Fat and beefy, with lower tones than the SWA.
 
The Vintage Emp is a coated version of the smooth white.

Emps used to be SW with coating until sometime in the late 90's early '00's when Remo went with the clear film coated.

They are cool heads. Makes a pretty cool front head on a bass drum too.
Fat and beefy, with lower tones than the SWA.

Not quite...

The vintage heads are made with polyester film that is off white in colour. The smooth white film is an entirely different film.

Heads that are currently using the new off white polyester film:

Vintage Ambassadors
Vintage Emperors
Emperor X
Powerstroke X

I'm not too sure about the new Ambassador X 1 ply 12mil heads, but I'm sure they will be using that new film. The coating sticks to it REAL well!

These heads are also not to be confused with the extremely unknown line of heads, which are the Coated Smooth White. That's right, there is a line of Coated Smooth White that has been around for years, but barely anyone knows about them or plays them. I find them too warm and dry for my tastes.
 
yeah, I think the Smooth Whites are regular mylar because they don't say anything about them being the polyester film. And, the film of the Powerstroke X does have more of an off white color to it, as opposed to the bright white color of the sm's.

I do remember 10 years ago the coated emperors were made with a white film. Maybe this was simply the coated smooth white emperor listed in the catalog?
 
yeah, I think the Smooth Whites are regular mylar because they don't say anything about them being the polyester film. And, the film of the Powerstroke X does have more of an off white color to it, as opposed to the bright white color of the sm's.

I do remember 10 years ago the coated emperors were made with a white film. Maybe this was simply the coated smooth white emperor listed in the catalog?

The original Emperors used the same film that is being used for the Coated Ambassadors. It isn't quite the smooth white film, but it isn't that newer off-white polyester film.

They were as advertised now, 2 plies of 7.5 instead of the modern day 7mil clear then coated. They had a warmer, fatter sound to them back in the day. The Vintage Emperors sound extremely close to the originals.
 
I won't debate you on the White/Off White, it probably WAS a different film!

The coated Emps I bought around 1990 sounded very different from some "White film" coated Emps I tried about a year ago--before the Vintage heads came out. I think the model number had a J or a T or something (after the number).

The older ones had a real nice open tone, easy to tune, etc...just a nice head (same as Ambassador). The new ones were not as nice...just kinda flat sounding.

I liked the Vin Emps I've heard on drums, but I didn't like the Vin Ambassadors. Kinda dead and dry for my tastes.

I just stick with good 'ol Coated Ambassadors, but I have had great luck using a SW on the bottom.

Back around '96 I used some "SW Emps" on my kicks and they sounded real nice.
BUT, the top layer of film is White and the second ply is clear....try & figure that out...
I wonder if the older ones had the white/clear combo or 2 plies of white?

Anyway I had them on front and back, and I painted a couple of them too. Sounded great.
 
well, the older coated emperors you got from 1990 were probably the typical 2- 7 mil plies. The ones you tried a year ago had to be the coated smooth whites, which I'm assuming are 2- 7.5 mil plies like the regular smooth whites, hence the difference in sound. The weird thing is, that's the same ply configuration of the new vintage emperors, which may reinforce the fact that the smooth white film and polyester film are quite different. I guess it doesn't take much to change the sound of the film.

And, I've seen the coated ambassadors with the smooth white film (older one I got with a used snare), and with the clear film. I have seen that hazy type film (kinda like a snare side hazy film) on the coated cs heads with the dot on top. I'm not sure if that's just the dot being hazy, or the entire film because I never lost the coating off of the dot. These heads sound great on Supras BTW.
 
Back around '96 I used some "SW Emps" on my kicks and they sounded real nice.
BUT, the top layer of film is White and the second ply is clear....try & figure that out...
I wonder if the older ones had the white/clear combo or 2 plies of white?

Anyway I had them on front and back, and I painted a couple of them too. Sounded great.


I remember those older Smooth White Emperors. We used them on our bass drums in drum corps. I remember that clear ply on the inside, which struck me as odd. I don't know why they decided to change it to 7.5mil+7.5mil of smooth white film through and through.

They are always making changes, but whether we pick up on them is a different story. I'm always looking to see if Remo is trying to slide changes through their stock as they have in the past.

I noticed the last couple of years the difference in the Falam Slam patches that come with Clear Powerstroke 3's. They are using the aramid fibre from the marching WhiteMax heads instead of the yellow kevlar fibers from the older K FALAM II series heads, which almost no one is using in the marching industry. So it makes sense for them to change over to the widely used WhiteMax aramid fibre instead. Its actually a good thing, the aramid fibre has more give than the older yellow kevlar fibre. It enhances the attack as usual, but it isn't as harsh as the original falam slams.
 
yeah, I've noticed the change in the falam slams, too. The older white ones were kinda like canvas, but the new ones are like faux canvas. I guess the clear version which was yellow is now black. The weird thing is, I never know which version they're gonna send me when I order them online, as there's really no way to specify which color you want.

Also, I got this coated powerstroke 26" kick head one time and it had this circular fyberskin kick head patch. It was just like the regular fyberskin head film, but it had adhesive on the back and was as thin as a regular head, so it didn't change the sound that much. It was quite durable too, because I never went through it with a plastic beater. I've never seen these for sale anywhere. Anyone know anything about these? All the other powerstrokes I've gotten have had the falam slam included.
 
help????????
i was thinking of getting smooth white for my kit ( probably ambassadors), but i'm a jazzer, the reason i want these heads because i have some notion that it will make my snare have this sork of plasticy sound, but with a nice snare sound, but they would probably be useless with brushes yes?

demo sound....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4PDR8rKWLs....wait for a few secs or so

none of my regular coated heads have this nice crisp tight sound, could it just be his snare, i doubt he uses smooth white, i remember him saying that he uses fiberskyn. it's just that over the last while i have been really cranking my snare to get a sound like this, but never wuite like it, maybe it could be the head.

thanks in advance, and if anyone has any sound clips of these heads i would love it
 
I have been playing drums for 33 yrs now. I have tried all kinds of heads, and tested all kinds of heads. That being said The "Smooth Whites" are unparalleled in sound. They sound simply amazing, i use the Ambassadors because the technique I use to tune is easier with one ply. These heads have such a wide range in tone, and the attack is amazing. I use them just on my toms though. An Evans emad on both bass drums, and a Aquarian High Velocity on snare. Back in 2003 at Guitar Center I first heard this kid playing a kit with the Smooth Whites and was blown away. I was just amazed how perfect they sounded. I thought to myself, Now that's how drums are supposed to sound. I have messed around with other heads here and there....but keep going back to the SW heads. Now I will say I don't care for the way they look, but I'm willing to sacrifice asthetics for Tonality. And these heads are easy to tune in my opinion. I hope this helps anyone that is thinking about getting some of these amazing heads, you won't be let down in the least. I wish they made these in green to match my emerald fade satin finish on my shells.
 

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I have been playing drums for 33 yrs now. I have tried all kinds of heads, and tested all kinds of heads. That being said The "Smooth Whites" are unparalleled in sound. They sound simply amazing, i use the Ambassadors because the technique I use to tune is easier with one ply. These heads have such a wide range in tone, and the attack is amazing. I use them just on my toms though. An Evans emad on both bass drums, and a Aquarian High Velocity on snare. Back in 2003 at Guitar Center I first heard this kid playing a kit with the Smooth Whites and was blown away. I was just amazed how perfect they sounded. I thought to myself, Now that's how drums are supposed to sound. I have messed around with other heads here and there....but keep going back to the SW heads. Now I will say I don't care for the way they look, but I'm willing to sacrifice esthetics for Tonality. And these heads are easy to tune in my opinion. I hope this helps anyone that is thinking about getting some of these amazing heads, you won't be let down in the least. I wish they made these in green to match my emerald fade satin finish on my shells.
From the photos, I’m wondering, Trick or Tama: which pedals do you prefer?

(Nice kit, too!)
 
From the photos, I’m wondering, Trick or Tama: which pedals do you prefer?

(Nice kit, too!)
One photo is Tama, the other is Axis with Trick beaters. I have owned, and tried all the big names.There is No best pedal. Its all about what works for you, and what your comfortable with. Just thought i would throw that out there. Thats a hard question. Im prob more comfortable with Tama believe it or not for playing two bass drums. But just one bass drum prob. Trick. Most people would prob be the other way around. There's no room for mistakes when playing direct drive pedals.
 
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help????????
i was thinking of getting smooth white for my kit ( probably ambassadors), but i'm a jazzer, the reason i want these heads because i have some notion that it will make my snare have this sork of plasticy sound, but with a nice snare sound, but they would probably be useless with brushes yes?

demo sound.... for a few secs or so

none of my regular coated heads have this nice crisp tight sound, could it just be his snare, i doubt he uses smooth white, i remember him saying that he uses fiberskyn. it's just that over the last while i have been really cranking my snare to get a sound like this, but never wuite like it, maybe it could be the head.

thanks in advance, and if anyone has any sound clips of these heads i would love it
They have alot of attack. I just use them for toms, and i think they are amazing. Not sure about a plastic sound, but it definitely has a sound. I use the Ambassadors.
 
I haven't really much experience with the SWs, but I do have a set of white Suedes that I'm really into. Probably similar, no?
 
I haven't really much experience with the SWs, but I do have a set of white Suedes that I'm really into. Probably similar, no?
Bob Yerby/Remo introducing White Suede drumheads, 2013. Pretty interesting concept behind them.
 
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