Progressively thinner drum heads?

GTM1

Member
So I recently put Evans Onyx heads on my Yamaha Stage Custom. I love the tone it gives on my 16 inch. It's powerful, dark, full, and a little bit of thud. But as my drums get smaller the tone is lost and replaced with just a thud. I undertand for some that thud is just what they are looking for. But I like a nice full bodied tone with mine as well. And I
enjoy the dark tone the Onyx gives. So I was thinking, wouldn't it be interesting if the drum heads themselves became progressively thinner, in a small amount, as the drums themselves got smaller. Sort of like how Danny Carey's set gets thinner each drum. What do you guys think? Would that acheive my desired effect, or would it just weaken the tone by thinning it? Or do they already adjust that per drum and im just asking more from
the head then it can give. Just a random thought I had, exuse any misspellings, I'm on my phone.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think a lot of drummers use thinner heads for smaller drums - for example Emperors on floor toms, and Ambassadors on rack toms. (I don't - I use Ambassadors all around)
 
Stanton Moore uses a coated A on is 12" and and coated E's on his 14" and 16" floors for most of the projects he is on. It works well. Its just a personal thing.

I personally like my toms to all have the same sonic profile. Its better for blending, and it goes along with the idea that the toms are a single multi-pitched instrument rather than 2, 3, or 4 separate instruments, which is the way I like to think about toms (in most cases).

But to each his own.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think a lot of drummers use thinner heads for smaller drums - for example Emperors on floor toms, and Ambassadors on rack toms. (I don't - I use Ambassadors all around)

Yes they do. And I do as well such as using a g1 on my 8 inch. But I meant having the manufacture thin the drum heads to each size within a certain line. So as to keep tonal continuity.
 
Yes they do. And I do as well such as using a g1 on my 8 inch. But I meant having the manufacture thin the drum heads to each size within a certain line. So as to keep tonal continuity.

I just tried using a thinner head on my 10" Yamaha tom for the first time and the concept does seem to work.


As far as manufacturers doing a pre-packaged set with gradually thicker heads on bigger toms, not a bad idea but not sure they could make it work from an assembly line vs cost vs market perspective.

You never know though. The whole Pearl Reference series thing with different composition per drum has been going on for a while.

Jim
 
I use the same thickness batter heads all around. I let the drum's size speak for their sonic differences.

Dennis
 
My favorite setup right now is G1 for the 10" tom, G Plus for the 12" and a G14 for my 16" tom; all coated. We're referring to it as the "Balanced Set." It sounds great and makes sense.
 
I like a really integrated sound between my drums, but couldn't get it using the same heads on my DW Classic kit. There's a huge difference in power and sustain between the 12" x 8" rack and 16" x 16" floor and it took some head changes to get it all working. On the 12" I use Remo Suede Ambassadors over clear Ambassador, and on the 16" I use coated Vintage Emperor over clear ambassador. Pretty different heads, but they make the most of the individual drums while integrating the sounds. (As a side note, I also use coated PS3 over coated ambassador on my 24" x 14" bass drum. Different again, but I get a very natural blend between all three drums - I don't like a bass drum that sounds unrelated to the kit)
 
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