Superb wet slap would probably pinstripes over emperors all tuned jaw. Muffle as needed.
Pinstripes in general tuned low are like playing with sacks of pudding instead of drums. More cut than Evans hydraulics.
I have heard some recordings of the hydraulics, but never anything live. I like the sound that I have heard, almost a sampled sound, but that could also been some of the audio processing. I've never run into anyone, personally, that uses them, so I am a bit hesitant.
I finally settled on Black Suede Emperors over Black Suede Ambassadors for my studio kit---12x10, 13x11, 16x16 toms, 14X6.5 wood snare has a Black X over Black Suede snare side (4 mil), 22x14 kick has a Black Suede PS3 with center ported reso (flame graphic) I keep everything tuned low but the snare, and these bad boys are serious THUMPERS!
This pic was before I added the Ambassador resos---guess I need to take some new pics!
Beauty of a kit! I bet it looks even nicer with the Ebony Ambasadors. I am with you on the sound of the ebonys, the drummer for a nearby church uses ebony ambassador top and bottom, and they sound amazing.
I'm not certain the number of plys is the determining factor, but the mass of the head is.
I've always been a coated ambassadors on both sides guy. But I just switched over to Evans G12s top and bottom and I'm lovin it. Lots of sustain but with no nasty overtones that need to be damped out with tape or moongel.
I think I can live with sustain as long as I can get rid of overtones. Sustain, I have come to realize, can be tuned down considerably. Tune the batter JAW and the reso a major third higer than batter pitch...
On my practice kit I have two 16x16 floor toms tuned high and low. On the "high" floor I have an EC2 batter over a Genera resonant, but on the "low" one I have a Pinstripe batter with a G2 as a resonant and tuned low it sounds absolutely thunderous! If I close my eyes I swear it sounds like I have a 16-18 combo :-D
G2 being a 2-ply? (Never really used Evans, never saw a need. Remo has always been good to me so why fix what isn't broken, right? Plus, unless times have changed, I can get comparable Remo heads $5 cheaper than Evans heads.)
If so, then that is exactly the sound I am looking for.
It depends on the kit for me. I've played on big drums or even small drums with acrylic shells and loved having two-ply heads (Always Evans G2 clears) on the bottoms. Still, my go-to heads will always be a varied range of single-ply heads.
Understood, another example of don't fix what isn't broken.
Thanks to everyone for their inputs, I greatly appreciate it. I think I am going to pull the trigger and go with the ebony emps for resos. Not going to be able to get them until the first of the year, but I will update everyone once I do and let you know how it goes.