Remo quality issues

Sirwill

Silver Member
I have been using Remo heads for over 30+ years. Over the last two/three years I have noticed a major drop in quality. In the last six months I have sent Remo pictures/e-mails of flaking coating of several heads that happened after "only tuning". They replaced one head, but would not replace the second. I have only sampled one other head company in all those years. If Remo does not fix this issue or replace defective heads, I just may be buying Evans heads for the next 30+ years...
 
Go Aquarian and dont look back. Better selection, better quality, better customer service , better pricing.
 
Both Aquarian's & Evans' quality control is much better than Remo's. I stopped using/endorsing Remo over 10 years ago because of chronic failure of their Pinstripes and Emperors. Remo claimed there were no problems. I assured them there were in my letter terminating my 17-year endorsement.

I've been an extremely happy Evans user since, with only one iffy head out of several hundred.

Bermuda
 
I wonder what happen to Remo? Did the business fall into hands of a younger generation of family members cutting cost by cutting quality?
 
A couple years ago I purchased remo black suede ambassadors or emperors and they did not match lol...all four different size heads were miss-matched in which the black color varied in tint from one head to the next. Looked like crap!!!

I will say lately I've had good heads from remo but that might just be because we've had a fresher stock of heads at my local music store. Maybe some people are getting shafted with "old" new stock heads from places that are slow to move product?

Evans...I like as well but my Gretsch New Classics kit came with Evans G1's that were very problematic! I wanted to verify that all screws which attach the lugs to the shell were tight, upon removing the batter hoop I noticed the head was like compressed into the hoop...way too tight of a fit! All the heads were like this for the whole kit :-(

What's a guy to do...I ran out and got remo heads that worked out very nice.

Aquarian is the sleeper out of the three big manufacturers of heads! Give them a try and you won't be disappointed.

If I was not in a hurry to get heads I would have ordered Aquarians but stock is limited at my local store. That's the only issue with Aquarian is for some of us we have to order the heads and thats fine unless you're in a hurry.
 
I have been complaining to Remo about this and also posted about my issues with their coatings here in the forum. I haven't had a problem yet with them replacing the heads. I just started to use Evans G2 coated and they are holding up well. I'm going to use what is going to last longer. Remo will lose my business totally if they don't fix their coating issue. Also check out the Attack single ply coated for the snare..awesome head and nice on the wallet!!
 
Funny. A few years ago an Ambo's coating failed on me quickly.

So I switched to an Evans Genera and its sweet spot wasn't as good but the coating was much more robust.

Then I got an Aquarian, which also had a robust coating and its sweet period was almost as good as the Remo.

Then I bought another Ambo and the coating was good this time, with Remo's typical great sound when worn in. So it would appear from my vantage point that Remo has picked up their game, but it's only one example and now it seems I was just lucky.
 
I've been reading about Remo issues for a while now and I was skeptical at first.
I didn't want to believe that an icon like Remo would have issues with quality.
I have had three dud Remo heads over the past 5 years so I am beginning to think that there may be something to it.
I have only had one bad Evans head and one bad Aquarian head in many years of using them.
I'm not happy with one of the clear Emperors that just came with my Mapex kit.
I have mounted it on two different drums and It has a buzz at loser tunings.
 
Remo heads were the only heads I used for close to forty five years. I too had my share of coating flaking problems. I switch to mostly Evans heads about five years ago and been very happy with them.. so far. I only had a problem with a 10" G1 clear head a couple of years ago that for some reason I couldn't get it to tune at the tension rod closest to the Evans logo, no matter how I turned the head on the drum. Evans quickly sent me a replacement head. I only have one kit where I'm using Remo heads and one of those drums have a coating chip on it.

This is where one of the higher echelon people from the Remo factory should try to instill confidence in their products onto us mere mortals, lol.

Dennis
 
Both Aquarian's & Evans' quality control is much better than Remo's.
I've been an extremely happy Evans user since, with only one iffy head out of several hundred.

Bermuda

Come on Bermuda...... How does this add up ???

kidding
 
Thank you for all of the great reply's to this thread...
 
Ever since Remo switched to their environmental friendly coating their heads are junk! They need to invest in applying the old coating in a more controlled environment instead of losing millions of customers.
 
Ever since Remo switched to their environmental friendly coating their heads are junk! They need to invest in applying the old coating in a more controlled environment instead of losing millions of customers.

Or just get the government watchdogs out of private industry and let Remo make coated heads the way they want to...
 
For the past 2 years I have been using Remo Vintage Emperors and have had no problems at all. Tonight,I put a new Powerstroke X on one of my snares and the coating was wearing off within an hour. I am assuming the the coating adheres to the V.A. material better than regular mylar ?
 
I posted in another thread about a couple of Remo CAs flaking on me on a gig each. Remo quickly sent me replacement heads and included a Ambassador X as well. I put the AX on my floor tom and loved the sound. I normally use CA or G1. I tuned the floor tom up and since I liked the sound I left home and went to GC to purchase a 12 for my rack tom. I did not spend any time playing the floor tom though. I put one of the replacement CA on my snare, the CAX sent as a replacement from Remo on my floor tom, and the 12 CAX from GC on my rack tom. I had a gig that night and reheaded the drums at my house. After the gig, which was a medium volume rock/dance gig, all of the heads looked like they had been on my kit for years. All of the heads flaked. I have moved back to Evans which I have never had an issue with. Aquarians have to be ordered and I like to try different combos often.
 
I recently put a new set of CA's on one of my kits, and the heads are just as good as they ever were.
No flaking, chipping, they sound great... wonder why MANY others have issues then?
Got a new CA bass drum head last week, and that was perfectly fine too.

Last month I got the new X-14 14 mil Ambassador to try out, and it's fine like the rest--on 2 different drums.

What gives????
 
Count me up as one that has never had issues with Remo heads. Not once. I've been buying them for ten years. Evans heads have always been good but always felt a little less subtle around the edges. I'm not disputing that people have had issues but I have never seen one or bought a defective head.
 
I've experienced 'issues' with AQUARIAN, EVANS, ATTACK and REMO, though I have to say per the number of heads involved a way smaller ratio w/REMO.

Any head manufacture will admit, these things are made by humans, there's going to be problems once in awhile.

Given the fact that REMO probably produces more heads than all the others combined, issues might be more visible due to the fact more stuff is out there.

At $80 MSRP for a piece of mylar, head manufactures should be able to field some great customer service.
 
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