DW snare owners

BlakeN70

BlakeN70

Senior Member
I know it's all preference, but I am curious as to what heads you use on your DW batters. Also is the factory DW batter snare head that is made by Remo equivalent to an Ambassador?
 
BlakeN70 said:
I know it's all preference, but I am curious as to what heads you use on your DW batters. Also is the factory DW batter snare head that is made by Remo equivalent to an Ambassador?
Click to expand...

I always put either a coated Ambassador or a coated Emperor depending on the drum.
The stock DW is close to an Ambassador but it is a crimped head (not glued) and has a lower collar compared to a regular Ambo.

I find it hard to quantify but there's something 'rubbery' about the stock heads and I much prefer real Ambassadors. Same thing on the toms. And same thing on DW Jazz shells.

I have friends who prefer the DW heads over everything else- so horses for courses as they say. What do your ears tell you? As my studio pals say, if it sounds right, it is right.
 
For the toms I use Aquarian Response II's. But just wondering what others use for their DW snare batter.
 
for my 14x5.5 craviatto solid shell snare i use an emperor X... great head.. able to tune low or high and not have to worry about to many crazy overtones..
 
Aquarian Textured coated, with dot on bottom for strength.

Pretty much sounds like a Remo Coated amasador, but slightly brighter.
 
evilg99 said:
I always put either a coated Ambassador or a coated Emperor depending on the drum.
The stock DW is close to an Ambassador but it is a crimped head (not glued) and has a lower collar compared to a regular Ambo.

I find it hard to quantify but there's something 'rubbery' about the stock heads and I much prefer real Ambassadors. Same thing on the toms. And same thing on DW Jazz shells.

I have friends who prefer the DW heads over everything else- so horses for courses as they say. What do your ears tell you? As my studio pals say, if it sounds right, it is right.
Click to expand...

I think I've heard John Good say the crimped heads give a truly different tone. There's surely a reason for it (but you know DW is a marketing monster). On my 14 x 5.5 Collectors, I've tried everything from an HD Dry, ST, HD....somehow it always needed a tad of dampening. Those other heads "darkened" the tone too much for me.

I eventually went to the coated Amabassador, and a small piece of Gaffers tape for a touch of control. Nice and bright. Very responsive, sharp crack.
 
I use Evans coated G2s on all my Collectors toms. Made a huge improvement in the sound.0

Unless the improvement was really from moving them into a bigger, wood-floored room.

Anyway, FWIW, I love the G2s.
 
Currently an Evans Onyx is working well.
 
evilg99 said:
I always put either a coated Ambassador or a coated Emperor depending on the drum.
The stock DW is close to an Ambassador but it is a crimped head (not glued) and has a lower collar compared to a regular Ambo.

I find it hard to quantify but there's something 'rubbery' about the stock heads and I much prefer real Ambassadors. Same thing on the toms. And same thing on DW Jazz shells.

I have friends who prefer the DW heads over everything else- so horses for courses as they say. What do your ears tell you? As my studio pals say, if it sounds right, it is right.
Click to expand...

I agree with this assessment. On the two DW kits I had that came with the stock DW heads, they felt a bit "boingy" but I attributed that to them being clear and not coated. Clear heads usually feel a little boingy to me anyway. That white coating stiffens it up a bit, and that's a sound I prefer more.
 
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