general questions about resonant heads, hoops, blah blah blah

*{censored} this became a lot of reading, for those of you who have a life: here's a summary:

got new drums, stock heads blow, upgrading to evans g2 clear batters, should i upgrade the resonant heads (to evans single ply) or are they more/less the same? need to upgrade to die-cast hoops on the snare. my new set is mapex, do i need to get "mapex" die cast hoops or are they all the same? if they are, which are the best to get? and finally, i want a really up-front, punchy kind of tom sound (basically the result of using evans g2 heads ) but what would upgrading to die cast hoops on the toms do? negligible difference or drastically increased whallop/punch? who's done it? i'm not afraid of them limiting sustain, i'm less worried about sustain than i am initial punch (but i won't muffle them or anything, drums need sustain)

ok now my long post

so i finally got to pick up my mapex pro m from the UPS plant. i got the discontinued pro m rock configuration from ebay for 700 bucks. came with a 24 inch bass drum, 14x8 snare, 14 inch hanging tom, 16 and 18 inch floors, {censored} RULES

things sounded pretty awesome right out of the box, great fundamental. that being said, it needs some upgrades. number one is heads. the stock heads are some kind of remo single ply garbage. that sound works for a lot of people, but not me. need evans g2 clear batter heads all around. i swear by them.

now i'm curious about the resonant heads. they're just thin single ply heads, i'm wondering how much of a difference it will make whether they're remos or evans. i might just upgrade em to some evans single ply, for anything, just to not have that thought nagging in the back of my mind about having some crappy resonant heads.

i pretty just haphazardly slapped the stock heads on the bass drum without really tuning them up and it still sounded like end of the world (in a good way). i like it nice and deep but of course it's a big open sound and i want it much more punchy, i'll probably go with an emad, but it seems pretty silly to upgrade to the 24 inch monster and then slap a giant hunk of foam on it, but i might need it. jenks said the powerstroke II sounded like crap on his bass drum (he got the same kit!)

snare needs a lot of work. it's one of those kind of deals where you tune it up kinda tight and 5 minutes later it's a floor tom. i need die cast hoops. you don't have to shop for hoops by brand right? you just have to pick the right number of lugs? or do i have to get a mapex die cast hoop. and if not, who makes the best die cast hoop?

also the snare is probably going to need some of those puresound snare wires, they make a world of difference.

as far as the toms go, i want a really punchy sound. listen to the tom fills here at 5:10:

now of course that's a steve albini production, but that's about the sound i'm going for, that plus the melvins.

my question is, upgrading the hoops on the toms to die cast, COSTLY, but would it be worth it to get me a more punchy sound? i have a pearl ultracast snare 14x6.5 and it came with triple flanged hoops and i upgraded to die-cast and it made a WORLD of difference in giving the drum new life and making it much more punchy and "snappy"

my question is, would upgrading the hoops to die-cast on toms make that drastic of a difference?

Change out the bottom heads. It cleared up my tuning problems with mine.

Superkick II sounded like crap, EMAD 1 and EMAD 2 are the bees knees. EMAD1 gives a touch more rumble, but I need the durability.

The hoops are 2.3mm, you can't get much stiffer without going to diecast, and even then, it's a preference thing. Diecast will dry them out. That said, you can get just about any hoops you want - just match the # of lugs. I did this with my M-birch, replacing the stock hoops for 2.3mm ones.

As for the snare, I'm using a hazy 300 and an ST Dry, I does drop in pitch after playing with it cranked (but I beat the living {censored} out of my drums) - I don't think it's the lugs loosening, as much as the head stretching because it's tuned up too tight (and being beaten on) - let it go...it'll settle. I think the snare wires are good - but that's me

All that said, I have a set of G2 Coated 14/16/18 that I tuned up, used at home for a day, and one day at practice, and didn't care for. If you're interested, I'll sell them to you for 65% MF price + ship.

No no, gotta be clear tom heads. Thanks for the offer though.

Yeah I'm a heavy hitter, and die cast hoops really helped my other snare. So I'm definitely putting them on there.

That's what I thought about the resonant heads, I'm defintely switching them out.

And drying out the toms might be good, I really think die-cast hoops on them will hep get a more focused sound, did you listen to that video I posted? At 5:10. Eh, I dunno.

I stuck an Emperor Clear with an evans nylon kick drum patch on my 24" ludwig maple, and I think it is an excellent choice.(for me anyways) It has punch, depth, tone and durability. Haven't used an evans yet on this drum, only Remo's and Ludwigs (It came with 4 ludwig heads of different makeup)

The choice of evans tops in G2 are a good one for the toms. Go with a single ply 10 mil thickness resonant to go with the double ply tops. Sounds like a killer set in killer sizes.