Aquarian head combo for a second floor tom

Fusssion

Fusssion

Junior Member
Hi all ....

I have a 70's 3 ply kit I made as a players kit back in 2009. The band broke up in June of 2010 but we're getting together for a reunion show in October...pretty excited.

Anyhow ....

I had 2 14x16 shells to make floor toms out of, and the original kit only wound up having one. For the show, I'm thinking of making the second shell to add to the kit just for fun.

I currently have a Texture Coated batter and a Classic Clear underneath for floor tom number one. What do you think the best combo would be for floor tom number 2 to help differentiate them other than tuning techniques?

I was thinking a Super2 batter /w a Classic Clear reso because I don't want the drum to be too 'dead' (i.e.; performance II) .....

Thoughts??

Thanks in advance! :)
 
I like a good dead "thud", so I was gonna go and recommend the Performance II, but my second choice was going to be the Super II, with Classic Clear reso. Might as well give it a shot!
 
A thought you might want to consider, and something I'm going to run with on my next purchase - use an equally weighted head on BOTH sides of the drum. It might surprise you! The reason being is that the thicker and heavier double ply head, compared to the thin single ply head will never generate an equal resonance in the drum due to differences in overtones, and the amount of air they are able to shift. So, you end up getting destructive interference.

Fortunately, I already have Classic Clears on the bottoms of my toms (and Response II batters), so my next purchase will be single ply, un-muffled Texture Coated batters for the toms. I have used, I think, Emperors as bottoms and tops in the past, on toms, and the sound was actually quite good (even though I'm off Remo now).

I think you might get surprisingly good results if you run with a Response II as your resonant, if you want that thump! So, you'll get the right sort of attack from the Performance II, but still a nice amount of body and harmonic balance from the Response II as opposed to a Classic Clear.

Something to be aware of (mainly for mic'ing purposes) is to ensure that your floor toms have a smooth attack and sustain, ie. you don't want the attack to be long and drawn out, and then a very sharp decay. (a sign of conflicting sound waves). Make sure the initial attack is strong, and the 'run-off' is smooth.
 
iwearnohats said:
A thought you might want to consider, and something I'm going to run with on my next purchase - use an equally weighted head on BOTH sides of the drum. It might surprise you! The reason being is that the thicker and heavier double ply head, compared to the thin single ply head will never generate an equal resonance in the drum due to differences in overtones, and the amount of air they are able to shift. So, you end up getting destructive interference.

Fortunately, I already have Classic Clears on the bottoms of my toms (and Response II batters), so my next purchase will be single ply, un-muffled Texture Coated batters for the toms. I have used, I think, Emperors as bottoms and tops in the past, on toms, and the sound was actually quite good (even though I'm off Remo now).

I think you might get surprisingly good results if you run with a Response II as your resonant, if you want that thump! So, you'll get the right sort of attack from the Performance II, but still a nice amount of body and harmonic balance from the Response II as opposed to a Classic Clear.

Something to be aware of (mainly for mic'ing purposes) is to ensure that your floor toms have a smooth attack and sustain, ie. you don't want the attack to be long and drawn out, and then a very sharp decay. (a sign of conflicting sound waves). Make sure the initial attack is strong, and the 'run-off' is smooth.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a great response, thank you! :)

Thanks to you too Beam me up ....
 
No problem! I have experimented a lot over the years with head combinations. The worst part is the fact that every kit is different and what works on one may not necessarily sound right on another :) so it's good to change things up from time to time, especially if you get a new kit.
 
iwearnohats said:
No problem! I have experimented a lot over the years with head combinations. The worst part is the fact that every kit is different and what works on one may not necessarily sound right on another :) so it's good to change things up from time to time, especially if you get a new kit.
Click to expand...

So a Response II is just a tad thicker than a Super 2 .... I was just on the Aquarian site looking around and I'm thinking maybe either:
Super 2 coated, w/ a Super 2 clear reso

or

Response II coated w/ a Response II clear reso ....

Hhhmmmm :)
 
I actually should try that! I used to use Super 2s, but wasn't as happy with the sound of them on my Gretsch USA Maple, so maybe they'll work if I double them up (good to see I'm using my own advice :p). I think they used to be the Double-Thin heads, I'm not sure if they changed anything about them when the name changed. I am actually really looking forward to using the Texture Coated heads, the only time I've had single ply coated heads on this kit was when I tried the Studio-X heads (they're more like Pinstripes, sound-wise, and they're just not the same thing :).
 
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