Another Guitar Center bad experience...

happened last night. I either need to give up or really learn not to care about anything in life.

Check this out. I play in my church's p and w band. Their kit is an old Pearl Export 5 piece in black wrap. No complaints about this kit. It's held up really well and fun to play. Pearl had a winner in that kit. Since it was "donated" by another church member because their kid lost interest in drumming, it sort of needs new heads. The snare head is the worst. Normal stuff.

After banging this skin for about 9 months now, I finally realized it's beyond it's time and really needs to go. Plus the entire drum needed a good cleaning, as does the drum set. You know, a bit of TLC.

So I have a $20.00 GC gift card laying around so I decide to use that to purchase needed snare drum heads. I begin looking in my drum closet and find a slightly used 14" clear batter head. Should work ok for a batter. At least far better than what was on there.

Upon inspecting the snare reso head, that thing should have been replaced eons ago. So I set about removing the heads and giving the 14 x 61/2" metal snare drum a goog cleaning. The snare wires are shot so I replace them with a fairly new pair I have.

I go to GC to buy the snare reso head yesterday and came out with a Remo 14" HAZY 1 ply head. I get home and realize I don't want the hazy, I really wanted the clear head for looks, since I have a clear batter head. I make my way back to GC, the same guy is behind the counter I bought it from 1 hour ago and sorta looks at me funny. I tell him what I want - basically just to replace this hazy with a clear.

You'd have friggin thought I was expaining astrophysics and rocket science to him. The look I got was a "dear in the headlights", dumbass confused, pale, expressionless, 1 chromosome missing look. I explained again what I wanted, nicely. He catches on and looks a bit, then comes back with a HAZY Batter Head saying it will work just fine. I have to explain again what I want. A CLEAR reso head, 1 ply thick, snare-side head. He tells me the drum head he is holding is a batter head. I agree. I had to explain AGAIN I simply wanted a clear reso snare head - and added "the bottom head for a snare drum". I emphasis the one he sold me is HAZY, I want CLEAR.

He scratches his head and then tells me the Remo HAZY will turn clear when I put it on the drum.

I'm friggin' speechless.

Talk about BS!!

I finally give up, realizing I'm taling to a complete dumbshit, who has NO CLUE as to what I'm talking about, or even care.

My affiliation with GC has about ended now. Every time I walk in there, I always see some new kid behind the counter wearing a badge saying he's "a certified GC expert". Like that means anything. They hire these kids for minimum wage, give them a little bit of training and enough knowledge to be extremely dangerous, then turn them loose and tell them they are now "experts" who know a lot more than their customers.

I was having a really good day until I ran into this twerp.

I'd have looked at you funny too. No one can see your snare reso head. The hazy head is a fine reso head, IMHO better than a clear reso.

The GC guy was wrong not to give you what you wanted, but not wrong to take his time doing it.

I'm 50, so I can be anal sometimes! lol Oh the hazy is a fine head. You are corect, sir!

I was just thinking it may be cool to have both heads transparent is all and was getting frustrated with the guy for arguing. I must be old school because every job I've had I've been taught "the customer is always right".

Pretty soon I'm registering for that Senior Citizen's Discount! Haha!

The GC employee obviously doesn't know what he's doing and shouldn't be working in the drum department. Big time fail.

On a side note, Evans Hazy snare rezo's are actually clear. What up with that? LOL! Remos must be different.

Well, if you originally came away with a 14" Hazy head, it was probably the correct head to use. To my knowledge Hazy heads come in three different series, The Diplomat, the Ambassador and the Emperor.The only differences is their thickness with the Ambassador having the most common thickness of a 3 mil head being the most used snare drum resonant head. The word Hazy only means that it is a very thin head meant for use as the bottom head of a snare drum. Any clear heads by Remo will have at least a thickness of 7.5 mil and that's the Remo Diplomat, and it's use is either a tom resonant head or batter head, it's a bit too thick to be placed on the underside of a snare drum.

Evans also has three different snare drum reso heads. The Hazy 200, the Hazy 300 and the Hazy 500. Each has a different thickness with the 300 (3 mil) being the most common. See where this is leading?

I believe you have a bit of apologizing to do. The GC salesperson was correct. There are some knowledgeable people working at GC, if you look, you can find them, lol.

Dennis

Man, you do let the most trivial stuff get you flapping don't you?

Whilst I definitely got a giggle out of the "HAZY will turn clear when I put it on the drum" line. It just ain't worth 8 to 10 paragraphs of angst my friend.

It's........a.......snare.......reso!!
Not the duco on your new prestige car.

Put it on, play it and be done with it. If it bothers you that much, either fork out for a coated batter....or perhaps just close your eyes.

To my best recollection, there is only one type of standard snare side head, the hazy, in the three weights as mentioned by audiotech. There are some specialty/marching snare side heads, IIRC, but that's not really what we're talking about in this thread.

I do tend to be long-winded don't I? Haha!

Stupid white boy. Ok, I stand corrected..."I learnt sumthin' " That's why I love this forum...the knowledge and expertise on here is amazing.

Thanks for the education fellas!!

As a point of interest perhaps, the collarless Ambassador snare resos are clear. There's not a hint of that hazy look to them. But you generally won't find them at GC and I couldn't find one at Donn Bennett either (5-star shop), so you have to special order it (Model No. SA-0314-TD). They can be found online.

Thanks MikeM. I have two kits to rehead in the future, so this is good info.

MikeM said:

As a point of interest perhaps, the collarless Ambassador snare resos are clear. There's not a hint of that hazy look to them. But you generally won't find them at GC and I couldn't find one at Donn Bennett either (5-star shop), so you have to special order it (Model No. SA-0314-TD). They can be found online.

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I believe those fall into the marching category of heads per Remo.

Soupy said:

I believe those fall into the marching category of heads per Remo.

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They are characterized as a marching 3 mil Mylar resonant head designed with a low collar capable of withstanding very high tension. The have less sustain than the Hazy snare side heads, but I guess it wouldn't harm anything to experiment with them. I don't know if the "low collar" would affect their fit on a standard snare drum.

Remo calls them "low collar", not collarless, if this makes any difference or not. I am referring to their stock # SA-0314-TD.

Dennis

Thanks.

A thread where I actually learned something.

Whew! On one of my snares, it's a Hazy Dip and not a 7.5 mil Dip.

Dennis, would you say that a 5x14" maple snare with a 7.5 mil Dip would be less than ideal as a snare reso? I would experiment with one of my 14" floor tom resos, but I'm a little lazy and if it's gonna cut some of the ring in the snare, I probably wouldn't bother. I like to tune it pretty lively, otherwise it's a little boxy and dead sounding.

TTNW said:

Thanks.

A thread where I actually learned something.

Whew! On one of my snares, it's a Hazy Dip and not a 7.5 mil Dip.

Dennis, would you say that a 5x14" maple snare with a 7.5 mil Dip would be less than ideal as a snare reso? I would experiment with one of my 14" floor tom resos, but I'm a little lazy and if it's gonna cut some of the ring in the snare, I probably wouldn't bother. I like to tune it pretty lively, otherwise it's a little boxy and dead sounding.

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For certain it will be much less sensitive, so it does depend what style music you're playing. The genres I play sort of run the gamut, so I usually run an Evans Hazy 300 on all my snares. The only time I don't, is where we are unplugged and playing intimate little three or four piece gigs, then I might switch over to an Evans Hazy 200 for better brush sensitivity. The thickest snare head I ever tried was the Evans Hazy 500. It wasn't my cup of tea because of it's lack of sensitivity and response.

The regular Remo Diplomats are about three and a half times thicker than their Hazy (2 mil) Diplomat counterpart, so there will be a significant difference in their sensitivity, response and sound. I've never used a Remo Hazy Diplomat, and never used a 7.5 mil head on my snares, so I'm just going by the numbers.

Dennis

Soupy said:

I believe those fall into the marching category of heads per Remo.

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Really? That would explain why I couldn't find it on their website! In any case, they're the only heads I could find that wouldn't mash into the snare butt plate on my Supra and Black Beauty. That's because they're collarless. Doesn't seem to be a different mylar, though. Sounds just like any other 3 mil snare reso to me.

I don't know that Remo even makes a clear glass reso head. Evans and Ludwig do. Not sure about Aquarian.

While I don't have thousands of posts on here, I do have some new in box Remo heads right in front of me. And contrary to what others are saying the OP is correct.

Remo doesn't make Clear Ambassabor snare reso heads AND Hazy Ambassador snare reso heads.

I have one of each right here that I bought last week at Sam Ash.

The Hazy one is definitely hazier than the Clear and both are clearly are mark Ambassador Snare. Just the hazy one has an additional marking for hazy.

Here is a clear one for sale.

Here is a hazy one for sale.

Simply, Remo makes both heads, and the OP should have been able to get either one without any BS from the guitar center guy.

Also it says they make both right here on the Remo Website.

Please give us the part numbers for the two heads you have.. The part numbers for the two heads you've linked on sweetwater are the same exact model head, one 13" and one 14". Look at the photos, both boxes say Ambassador Hazy. Remo's web site only lists one type of ambassador snare side head, not two. Again, look at the part numbers on Remo's web site (click model numbers then snare side). The term "hazy ambassador" refers to the fact that it is a thin 3 mil head, and doesn't really refer to whether the Mylar used on the head is transparent or translucent, crystal clear or slightly foggy. Remo is somewhat sloppy with their terminology in that sense. The Remo link you gave is of the Clear Ambassador product page, and the hazy heads are a subset of clear heads, being as they aren't coated, smooth white, ebony, or any other variant of head.

Alright, both my heads have the same part number: SA0114. But one is definitely clear and the other slightly foggy.


Here's what was suggested by another drummer I know, and it seems good enough for me:

Remo has always made the 3-mil ambassador snare side drum heads. And for years they were perfectly clear, but they started to make them hazy for ease of identification (or perhaps they were just more popular). Now that's all they make since there isn't a sonic difference. Still, some clear heads haven't been sold off yet, so every now and than you find one.

This makes sense to me especially considering the serial numbers.

Honestly it doesn't really matter at all. The facts are clear by the serial numbers - Remo only makes one Snare side ambassador which are hazy.

But the OP and I can't be the only ones to have used a Clear Snare side ambassador?

What do yours look like? Crystal clear or kinda foggy?

Milt Hathaway said:

I'd have looked at you funny too. No one can see your snare reso head. The hazy head is a fine reso head, IMHO better than a clear reso.

The GC guy was wrong not to give you what you wanted, but not wrong to take his time doing it.

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What??



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