It's a totally legitimate application. Didn't Bonham use coated ambassadors as resos? I'm pretty sure he used coated emporers as batters.
I haven't heard this combo on my drums for a while, I'll have to try it. Thanks for the idea.
I'm using 1 ply 10 mil coated heads on both sides of my toms and bass drum now. I like the tone and sustain of these drums a lot.
Dennis
stillgroovin said:This is an old studio trick I learned a long time ago that can tame the resonance of you floor toms. Works quite well.
In my experience, it doesn't matter if your reso head is coated or not as long as its a lighter weight than the batter. Otherwise your tom will deaden your sound in a bad way. In Bonham's case, it was ok because ambassadors are lighter than emperors. I wouldn't, however, use a Clear A batter with coated A reso. Because the coating makes it a heavier weight.
Evans J1 head is an etched head. It behaves the same as a coated head, but instead of added a coating, they etch the surface to make it thinner instead of thicker. I'd give that a try for a reso...
Is the combination of a clear head on the batter side and coated on the resonant side a wise idea on the toms? Do many people do this, or just stick to either all coated on each or all clear?
I think it would matter more what thicknesses the batter and resonant heads were. If I were trying this combo, I'd probably look at Clear G2's or Clear Super 2's or Clear Emperors over the coated equivalent or thinner.
FWIW: I've seen a growing number posts where players talk about how they like the sustain they are getting with thicker (2-ply specifically) resonant heads as opposed to the traditional setup of having a thinner or at most equal thickness resonant head with an equal or thicker batter. I haven't tried this but my guess is that this combo does give a great deal of sustain but with less overall highs in the general character of the tom sound (we are talking toms right?).
This may work for some and I may just give it a go one day to see how it flies. However, in general I don't want to lose any of the higher frequency of my tom sound or any other drum for that matter so I'll probably stick with a 1-ply solution whether coated or clear for now.
Jim
I wouldn't think that a clear over a coated would pose any problems. What you'll get is the brighter stick attack from the batter and a warmer, more rounded tone from the coated reso. Actually, sounds like an interesting idea to me.