Re: TUNING LUDWIG
What I do with my kit is I have Coated Evans G2's on the batter side, same head as the Coated Emperors. I have Coated Ambassadors on the bottom, a Coated Emperor on the batter side of the bass drum and a Medium weight smooth white Ludwig script head on the reso side. I personally would stay away from Power stoke heads or any head with a pre muffling system for the bass drum. The 14"x26" bass drum sounds so much better with just felt strips, very Bonham sounding.
The same priciple will apply to all of the drums, tune the resonant side way up and the batter side at about a medium tension. On the bass drum keep the front head solid and put a felt strip vertically on the right or left side your preference. On the batter side I put the felt strip along the bottom about 4" from where the beater strikes the head. Tune the front side way up, it's about 85 on a drum dial. The batter side about 78-80 on a drum dial. Same goes for the toms 85 on reso side 78-80 on the batter side. This gives me a very powerful boomy Bonzo type of sound out of my drums. On the snare same priciple, snare head way up and the batter side about medium or a little higher. Make sure your snares are not choked, you want a very "snarey" sound so you don't lose sensitivity. Good Luck, I hope this works for you. I love the sound that I am getting from my drums. Remember for the bass drum you have to tune it a lot higher then what you would think because of the size of the drum, you are moving a lot of air so you can't tune it loose like a smaller bass drum it just sounds like a wet paper bag if you do.