Anyone else been having problems with Remo?

[jonescrusher]

Let me reassure you that a Remo head can never hurt you or your loved ones. There really is nothing to fear there. I recently bought a new Gretsch Renown kit that came with clear evans heads, and felt it necessary to replace them all with Remo Ambassadors. Yes, the Evans coating does mark less easily than Remo heads, but that's purely a visual thing. They're just as durable and the tone doesn't diminish. Given the insane prices you americans pay for heads i'd say it would be hard to make a truly regrettable decision either way.

[brittc89]

If youre so scared, dont buy them. I find remo heads to be just fine though.

[beefythedrummer]

I have never had a problem with remo heads, whether it be durability or tuning ability. I like to try different things like you do. So the next time I switch heads, they won't be remo's, but it's not because of an issue I've had with them. But if you're scared than don't buy them. Have you tried Aquarians?

[ZildjianMan1023]

Originally Posted by beefythedrummer

I have never had a problem with remo heads, whether it be durability or tuning ability. I like to try different things like you do. So the next time I switch heads, they won't be remo's, but it's not because of an issue I've had with them. But if you're scared than don't buy them. Have you tried Aquarians?

DUDE! i want to try aqurians but i dont think the store i go to carries them.. ill have to look around.. which aquarians do you reccomend for my genres below?

[Fur drummer]

Originally Posted by ZildjianMan1023

buying remo heads.. i currently have evans g2 heads coated all over but im getting new heads in october.. and you know i like to try all brands seeing which i like and what not.. i am terrified to death of buying remo heads from the stuff i hear.. are they any good? if so hows the coating? and if you play in a thrash metal/ rock/ punk band what heads are best?


Thanks,

Dom

Remo heads are still considered the best by some of the top drummers so don't be scared to try them.

[beefythedrummer]

Originally Posted by ZildjianMan1023

DUDE! i want to try aqurians but i dont think the store i go to carries them.. ill have to look around.. which aquarians do you reccomend for my genres below?

I'm not too sure, because I've just played on them on other kits, not my personal one. But I think Performance II's or the Studio X are the ones you would use for metal and harder music. Can someone tell me if I'm wrong?

[Cymbalrider]

I thought they had oil from the stripe outward....

Originally Posted by Cymbalrider

I thought they had oil from the stripe outward....

Nope, it's just the "rainbow" effect as tomtom said. The two plies aren't sitting flat with each other so you get that look. A company like Aquarian has techniques to get their plies sitting flat with each other so that doesn't happen. Evans Hydraulics are the only oil filled head.

[Fur drummer]

Originally Posted by ZildjianMan1023

DUDE! i want to try aqurians but i dont think the store i go to carries them.. ill have to look around.. which aquarians do you reccomend for my genres below?

Go to Aqurians' web site, they have a drum head tip section that suggests what type of heads you should use for certain kinds of music. That might help. I play rock and some jazz and love my performance II (batter) and Hi - Frequency (resonant) heads.

[hauk]

Originally Posted by ThroneAmbition

What are the comparable Evans heads to the Remo Coated Emperors and Ambassadors.

Ambassadors are the comparable heads to G1s - single 10 mil ply
and Emperors to G2s - two 7 mil plies

Originally Posted by Cymbalrider

I thought they had oil from the stripe outward....

No. They're just glued together from that stripe with a special epoxy, as far as I'm aware. Not that I'm all that bothered, I absolutely loathe Pinstripes.

[cdrums21]

Originally Posted by liam1523

Hi. Can anyone help me with this problem or is it meant to happen. I bought a 12" clear pinstripe a few weeks ago and i bought a 16" clear pinstripe last week. I started noticing waves or rainbow coloured liquid of some sort inside the plies of the head in my 12" tom. This was the first time upgrading my heads after the standard ones that came on my kit. I forgot about it and just kept playing as it sounded as it should. Then a couple of days ago the same thing happened to my 16" tom and i dont know what it is. I'll explain again. Its a sort of rainbow coloured liquid in between the plies of the head. It doesnt change the sound but it looks really bad and each time a i play with them the liquid grows and there is more of it. Its getting bigger every day. CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THIS IS OR HAS ANYONE EVER HAD THE SAME PROBLEM.

Thanks, Liam

Liam,
The "rainbow" effect you are seeing on your heads is just a light refraction. There is no liquid between the plies of a pinstripe head. Many people have experienced this and it's normal with 2 ply clear heads. As you play the head, the position of the plies changes and refracts light to make it look like a liquid is in between the plies. I assure you that there is NO liquid in there and it shouldn't affect the sound whatsoever.

Originally Posted by tomtom

That stuff is NOT oil. There is no oil between the plies in Pin-stripe heads. There is however oil in the Evans hydraulics (hence the name). But plastic is made of oil so when two clear plies of plastic rub against each other, it causes this "rainbow" effect. The more you use it, the more the plies rub against each other, therefore: more "rainbow" effect. This is actually not a problem and doesn´t affect the sound.

You get the same rainbow effect with Emperors after a while. It's not really the rubbing that causes it, it's interference that happens because of the "refraction" of light passing through the plies and the layer of air between them. As they are used more, they are deformed. this thing only happens at certain distances between the heads (we're talking 10ths of microns here).
The effect is the same as that rainbow effect you get with soap bubbles, the refraction of the thin film is causing interference, damping certain light frequencies and amplifying others.

[ramair96ws6]

Im a little confused... I know what i have spent on my drum set. Im not going to be scared to spend a 100 bucks on some drum heads. if they suck take them off throw them away or give them away and buy another set. is it really this big of a deal? I hav eplayed on Remo pinstripes head for over 20 years never a problem. I jumped on the evans band wagon and i think they are an awesome head.

I have the EC2 heads with Genera snare head and aquarian super kick II bass drum head. Great heads I really like the snare head it really can take a beating. and the super kick II just sounds awesome. and you toms tune super easy.

[fijjibo]

Dont be scared of Remo - its worth a try - just buy a snare head, test it out, and see if you like it.

If you do, get the whole set.

If you dont, Evans and Aquarian are there waiting for your money :-)

[Cymbalrider]

Just beware of the lopsided ones. In my last big order I had 3... stupid things. That's why I'm never buying them. I don't like (just preference) the stuff Evans makes but that's what I have to buy from now on. I hate it too because I liked Fiberskyn heads so much and now I have to get G1s just to ensure a decent head. It's hard to tune the lopsided ones as you have to unevenly tune the head which can't be good for the shells and certainly not the wooden bass drum hoop. Yes, I made sure it's the heads and not my drums. For example one of the bass heads fits and the other doesn't. You can switch them around and the same exists just now on the other side. The same is true with the tom heads. It's just not right to pay that much and get duds. If you get a good Remo, you have one of the best heads on the market but the odds aren't very good these days. Of course, if Remo changed and started making better heads recently it wouldn't matter as the old ones are the warehouses still. I just can't take the risk of buying them anymore. Strangely enough in the past I had a coated Ambassador head that lasted for years on a concert snare of mine. It was just my last order, 12 Remo heads (to replace the Evans, Aquarian ones I had which I just didn't care for) and 4 of them defective. 3 uneven, 1 split without warning after only 3 weeks or so. The others are great sounding though.

[ahum]

I might get murdered for saying this in this thread, but...I got a defective evans head. I had a genera snare head. Put it on, stretched it and wore it in and everything. Kicked into the first song with the band, and watched dent after dent go into the head. It was dead after one song. Talk about a shoddy dud. I've been using remo's and haven't had any problems.

[Cymbalrider]

so you wore it out and then put dents in it and its the head's fault?

Originally Posted by ahum

I might get murdered for saying this in this thread, but...I got a defective evans head. I had a genera snare head. Put it on, stretched it and wore it in and everything. Kicked into the first song with the band, and watched dent after dent go into the head. It was dead after one song. Talk about a shoddy dud. I've been using remo's and haven't had any problems.

Dents are usually the fault of the user. Genera heads are 1 ply, which Remo snare head were you using? I've dented Genera snare heads before (I was doing a theatre gig and one song called for marching sticks - long story) and it certainly wasn't the fault of the head.

Just another experience I wanted to share, as I don't know if he'll remember to post here. I was talking to Tuxido last night and he says that his Fiberskyn snare head has a "bubble" in the middle of it, like two plies aren't sitting together...except it's a one ply head. There is a plastic "click" when he plays the head. He said that it happened about 4 days after he put on the head and has been getting worse since. Coincidentally, somedrummer told me that he had the exact same problem with the one as well.

[IDDrummer]

Originally Posted by fourstringdrums

Just another experience I wanted to share, as I don't know if he'll remember to post here. I was talking to Tuxido last night and he says that his Fiberskyn snare head has a "bubble" in the middle of it, like two plies aren't sitting together...except it's a one ply head. There is a plastic "click" when he plays the head. He said that it happened about 4 days after he put on the head and has been getting worse since. Coincidentally, somedrummer told me that he had the exact same problem with the one as well.

That FiberSkyn head is actually a type of two ply in the Ambassador weight. There is the Ambassador-weight mylar and then the proprietary "FiberSkyn" material is laminated to that. So it's not two free-floating plies, but there is a layer laminated to the main mylar ply, and it seems his is coming unlaminated.

[ahum]

Originally Posted by Cymbalrider

so you wore it out and then put dents in it and its the head's fault?

When I say "wore it in" I mean that whole seating the head deal (putting two hands on and pressing). I tuned it up and played it a little before the set. I've put plenty of different snare heads on (1 and 2 ply) and never had problems, there was just something wrong with this head. Evans doesn't have perfect quality control either; that's all I'm saying.

[Cymbalrider]

Well I posted these troubles on the Remo forums and people just seem to mention that there are a lot of dud heads out there. Apparently, the new ones are better made which makes sense but I can say that the old ones are still out there. People said that to buy them you should check them out first. Now, this is odd because 1: I don't have such a place to do so, and 2: how is looking at the head in a box going to tell you whether it's not going to fit or tune right...unless maybe it has a large dent in it.. :)

im not having problems with remo......nope....im not....

[Cymbalrider]

Kinda like how Yamaha started using plastic parts on their drums all over. Plastic washers and lugs and whatnot. And those companies and their complex $400 bass pedals that have so many parts they fall apart. What happened to the Speedking pedals and the belt drives? And the cost keeps going up even for stuff that's already been sitting on the shelves.

i havebeen having problems wth my 12" tom, i had evans coated g1s on, fine, changed to pinstripes, can't seem to get them right. going back to evans, probably clear g2s.

[Steady Freddy]

I've had three PS3s that didn't fit the kick very well. Two batters and one reso. That said, they sounded good, but it bugged me. The heads counter hoop left a gap between it and the bass drum hoop.

I had a 14 inch Vintage A that was dead as a door nail, and a Powersonic that the foam started peeling off of.

I'll keep using Ambassadors on my snares, but I think I'm pretty much done with Remo.
Evans has very consistent quality and they sound great.

I sent one of the heads back to Remo. They paid the shipping.

I do plan on addressing these issues with them.

Originally Posted by Steady Freddy

I've had three PS3s that didn't fit the kick very well. Two batters and one reso. That said, they sounded good, but it bugged me. The heads counter hoop left a gap between it and the bass drum hoop.

I had a 14 inch Vintage A that was dead as a door nail, and a Powersonic that the foam started peeling off of.

I'll keep using Ambassadors on my snares, but I think I'm pretty much done with Remo.
Evans has very consistent quality and they sound great.

I sent one of the heads back to Remo. They paid the shipping.

I do plan on addressing these issues with them.

I had the same problem with 2 bass drum batters and 2 bass drum resos, but they did sound alright, but again the gap kind of bugged me. At least now I know I'm not the only one.

[robotron17]

Originally Posted by Steady Freddy

I sent one of the heads back to Remo. They paid the shipping.

I do plan on addressing these issues with them.

What contact address/number did you use? I bought TWO totally dead 26" coated Emperors ($$$$$). I contacted them via an email address on their site and never heard back.

Originally Posted by bermuda

The reason they wouldn't tune is that the underside ply often didn't lay flat with the batter side. There were wrinkles/waves, so the plies wouldn't tune the same, and therefore wouldn't resonate properly. They sounded dead, or at best, choked. Yet these heads get into the stores! So it's partly a manufacturing issue, but the bigger problem is Remo's lack of quality control.

Die-hard Remo fans tell me that they go to a store with a good selection and hand-pick their heads, and they have no problems. Then I explain the irony of having to separate the good heads from the bad ones, and reality starts to sink in.

With Evans, I haven't encountered any bad heads (and I also know that Aquarian's quality control is excellent.)

Bermuda

They don't always leave the factory with problem being evident. I bought a set of Vintage A's to try out. They all passed the tap test before I put them on. No wrinkles or other visible signs. Once they were installed 2 of the 3 were dead/choked and were not good. I removed them to investigate the issues and found wrinkles in the bottom ply and they failed the tap test miserably while the third head was fine.

[Steady Freddy]

Originally Posted by robotron17

What contact address/number did you use? I bought TWO totally dead 26" coated Emperors ($$$$$). I contacted them via an email address on their site and never heard back.

I called them and spoke to a lady named Angie in customer service. Waste of time so far. Haven't heard a word.

Remo Inc.
28101 Industry Drive
Valencia, CA 91355
Tel: 661-294-5600

[drums32]

I bought some pinstripes and i have the same problem thats why im switching to some evans ec2s. I prefer evans over remo.

[malcolm ross]

Originally Posted by drums32

I bought some pinstripes and i have the same problem thats why im switching to some evans ec2s. I prefer evans over remo.

the snareheads powerstroke 3,with white brush surface ,last only 2 gigs,especially if you use brushes,so i now use aquarian modern vintage,these last for ages,ive used remo for years but the quality is now suspect!

[mind_drummer]

Originally Posted by malcolm ross

the snareheads powerstroke 3,with white brush surface ,last only 2 gigs,especially if you use brushes,so i now use aquarian modern vintage,these last for ages,ive used remo for years but the quality is now suspect!

Really good choice sir....

[rjsteinbach]

Thank you for explaining that tomtom, i used to work at gc and so often people would come in asking for the remo heads with oil and I would explain the same thing to them. For some reason people have trouble understanding this concept.

GC does not get seconds heads.

Remo's quality control sucks. When you get a head do the tap test, its not a perfect way to see how good a head is but if it sounds completely dead, move on to the next one. Although
Remo's dont last as long, imo they are the best sounding heads out there. Sometimes you'll get a junky head that only lasts a short time. They are the cheapest (decent) heads out there, cheaper than evans and aquarian. So that should be considered also.

[drumming sort of person]

I just got a bum pinstripe head that will not tune up properly on a fairly new 12" Gretsch USA Custom tom. I left a note on Remo's customer forum, so let's see what they suggest. I haven't tried using Pinstripes in a million years, and I was excited to try them again. Looks like I'll be going back to single-ply heads from now on.

[tard]

Originally Posted by rjsteinbach

They are the cheapest (decent) heads out there, cheaper than evans and aquarian.

Everywhere I have checked Aquarian are lower priced than Remo, and a lot less than Evans.