Need help with heads

I am a self taught drummer and have a Sunlight kit, I guess it is an offshoot of pearl, can't be sure. I have recently joined a band and do 70,80, 90's covers. The band says the drums sound just fine but I definately need new heads (their 6 yrs old) and the bottom heads are original. This is my first band experience and I don't know what to purchase for a good live sound can anyone help? Plus I am on a tight budget.

I will tell you new heads, when properly tuned, make the sound of an old kit seem better than new. However, I can not tell you what heads work best. Personally, I like Aquarian Modern Vintage heads for the batters on my kits and on one of my kits I use them on for the resonant heads on the toms.

When I mention the Aquarian Modern Vintage to drummers who have tried them, they can not say enough good things about them. They are worth the extra effort to find them..

Take the time to tighten the lugs and hardware inside the drums, and clean the bearing edges while the drums are open. If you want, it could be a good time to clean the drums as well.

Hi Panther

Well this is a very difficult question, it's like asking "what shoes should I wear" or "which shampoo should I use"...

There's so many choices that's almost impossible to give you an advice, and if you're likely to have some advice from members, you'll have so many combo to choose from, that you would be back to your initial OP question... which heads should I use... )

Furthermore, "a good live sound" is so subjective to anyone taste that it cannot be a criteria as such.

Try at least to tell us what type of music you play and what type of sound you're looking for, it would be a starting point.

Mad About Drums,

Thank you for your post. I am playing everything from Loverboy, Bonjovi,Blue Oyster Cult, Foriegner, Lynard Skynard, Blink 182, Led Zeppelin,ACDC,Dire Straights. Thin Lizzy, Golden Earing, I could go on, hopefully that gives you an idea of the music My band is doing. Like I said in my original post the resonance heads are original Sunlight heads and have 6 yr old Remo Ambassador coated on my snare and toms. My kick has Remo emporer clear with original Sunlight resonance head. The guys say my set sounds fine but I need to change them anyway it has been 6 yrs. Appreciate any advice you have given me to all replies, thank you and feel free to advise me further. I have never done a gig in my life and just want the set to sound good.

I liked a lot of the bands you mentioned, I used to love "Radar Love" from Golden Earring and most of Led Zep albums.

Now, back to your heads, given the type of music you're playing a Remo Emperor for the batter side and a Remo ambassador on the resonnance side of you toms and floor toms is a popular combo (or Evans G2 over Evans G1, or Aquarian Response 2 over Aquarian Classic Clear if you want to try a similar combo from a different brand of heads).

You can have coated batter heads that I mentioned above, they'll give you a slightly lower and darker pitch if you're after that type of sound.

A Remo Controlled Sound (CS) with a white dot in the center should give you a nice "crack" as a snare batter head.

For the bass drum, you can try an Aquarin Superkick II for the batter side with an Aquarian Regulator on the front, with good tuning, you won't need any muffling devices, as these heads have already a design to cut the overtones.

This is only a suggestion, the best way to do this is trial and error, try to learn the technicalities and likely applications of the designs of the heads available on the market, it's like shampoo, so many different type for so many different hair, ha ha

Visit the leaders website, Remo, Evans, Aquarian, they all have some kind of explanation of their product, charts of sound, samples etc.

Good luck...

Thank you Mad for your response I will take your advise and put it to good use. Take care and rock on!