Head suggestions

Stefan Brodsky

Stefan Brodsky

Senior Member
Can I get a recommendation for some heads? Have a 4-year old Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Nouveau with standard 10" 12" and 14" x 14" tom sizes. While I have dialed in the snare and bass, (coated Ambassador or an Evans coated G1 and an Emad) I have gone thru a cadre of heads trying to get a consistent, though not too dead tom sound. We play old school R & B. I've used coated Ambassadors over clear Ambassadors, Remo Coated Black Suede Ambassadors, Evans EC 2s/360s (clear) and currently have several Aquarian Coated Performance IIs on the 12" and 14". Re: the latter the coated Performance II on the floor is okay, but not necessarily as dead as I wanted it to be. I think the depth of the floor tom is at work here. The 12" AP II however, sounds a bit too dead. I've kept a coated Ambassador on the 10" which is sounds just fine. We play in smaller venues and I am not a particularly hard hitter. We are also going to do some studio work soon. Do I switch, say to an Aquarian Coated Response II for the 12" or are there others, including different manufacturers and products which I may want to consider? Any and all suggestions are most welcome. Thanks.
 
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I suggest trying Remo Emperor heads (coated or clear, depending on how bright a sound you want) on batter side, and Remo Ambassador heads (coated or clear, depending on how bright a sound you want) on the bottoms. Remo Diplomats on the bottom will decrease a bit of the lower frequencies if you need that.

For a more dampened sound, you could try either Remo Smooth White Emperor, or Remo Clear Vintage Emperor on the batter side.
 
I'm thinking Sound rings over a thick single-ply like a G12 might work for you. I think sound rings sound great over single-ply heads.
 
EWGroove said:
The 12" AP II however, sounds a bit too dead. I've kept a coated Ambassador on the 10" which is sounds just fine. We play in smaller venues and I am not a particularly hard hitter. We are also going to do some studio work soon. Do I switch, say to an Aquarian Coated Response II for the 12" or are there others, including different manufacturers and products which I may want to consider? Any and all suggestions are most welcome. Thanks.
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Seeing as I play primarily Aquarian, I will suggest you stay with that brand. :)

If the Performance II head was too dead on the 12" (and I completely understand...that is one muffled head) another option may be the Response 2 that you mentioned or the Super 2 which is still a 2 ply but slightly thinner than the Response 2.
 
Thanks guys.These are excellent suggestions. So much has changed over the years from the old 3 ply drums we used to play, and of course so has the selection of heads from various manufacturers.
 
We need more of these posts. We need to make one thread for each model with under threads with for every genre and setup for every set! If everyone contributes we could make it to 15 000 threads at newyear! Come on drummers! We don't have enough of these threads!




And also Ambassador X.
 

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I don't know if this will help, but I'm currently using Evans EC2 SST clears for he tom batter side and Aquarian Clears on the reso side.

10" & 12" are tuned to the same pitch top and bottom and on my floor tom (it's a 16"), I have the reso tuned higher than the batter.
 
I just picked up a 13" clear G14 (it was clearance priced) and put a 16" clear G14 on order because there were none in the store. I got them to replace the Performance II heads that I've had on my gig kit for the last two years. The toms are both concert toms so I needed a thick, durable single-ply with a little more sustain than what the Aquarians were giving me.

I put the 13" G14 head on and it tuned up quickly to where I liked it. The tom sounds much better now, but only in the mid-tone range. I don't think it's the head's fault though. It was a bit ringy at first, so I added some gaffer's taper (sp?) to the head because I'm not fond of moongel. I think when I go back to the store to pick-up the 16" head, I will also buy a couple sound rings for the toms too. I think the rings will dial in my sound the best. Again, there were no Aquarian heads to buy in these thicknesses. I could have got the Amb X-14's just as easy, but the price was right on the G14's. It only cost me 24 bucks for two G14 heads.
 
cDark3r said:
We need more of these posts. We need to make one thread for each model with under threads with for every genre and setup for every set! If everyone contributes we could make it to 15 000 threads at newyear! Come on drummers! We don't have enough of these threads!




And also Ambassador X.
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Well you know cDark, how else are we able to try and differentiate from the 30+ or so heads that each manufacturer puts out, not to mention our different drums and composition of such and our particular styles of playing? I don't know about you, but I can't keep shelling out close to $30 (US) each time I change tom heads, just to experiment with different sounds.
 
EWGroove said:
Well you know cDark, how else are we able to try and differentiate from the 30+ or so heads that each manufacturer puts out, not to mention our different drums and composition of such and our particular styles of playing? I don't know about you, but I can't keep shelling out close to $30 (US) each time I change tom heads, just to experiment with different sounds.
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I do have to say Evans does at least try to help on their website, with the graphics that show Attack Sustain Tone and Durability as well as a spectrum of Dark to Bright as well as sound clips.
 
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