Drumheads and toms

Me and tom drumheads seem to never get along.

I want a nice deep rumbling set of tones, however, the heads always disagree and go from ring to smack well before I get where I want to. Historically, I've had trouble with this, so it's no surprise that it's happening now that I've gotten back into drumming again

So, I need some help choosing the correct heads.

What I want...

Nice deep rumble with decent sustain, without a LOT of ring - just enough to cut through well. My 16" mounted tom should have a great rumble to it, like the opening of "We die young" from AIC, then I can go up in pitch from there...

Genre is rock and metal. Think Tommy Lee (Motley Crue) meets Sean Kinney (AIC)

Yeah, I know, it'd be hard to do right without micing and so on, but I know I could get closer than what I am now with the OEM heads on my Mapex Kit.

Just looknig for recommendations.

Thanks!

what heads have you used in the past?

what are your OEM heads like, single, double ply? are they OK or utter {censored}e?

I'll go out on a limb and give you the ol' pinstripe reccommendation right off the bat.

The OEM heads are single-ply, "Remo" that were included with the kit.

I'd say they're ok - good ernough until I can afford better

For the dw's I use pinstripes on top and ebony ambassadors on the bottoms (only because they are black with black hardware).

On the Rydeens, I use pinstripes on top and clear ambassadors on the bottom.

Does the job for me. Still has a bit of ring, but mostly the fundamental tone with lots of sustain.

(my dw 'floor' tom sustains for a good 8 seconds!)

Try this: seat (stretch) the heads, then loosen all the lugs until something starts to buzz or rattle, then tighten till it's fixed.

Note that regardless of how you tune, if you close mic your drums, you'll likely need to deaden it a lot more than sounds good acoustically.

Try this info: http://home.earthlink.net/~prof.sound/index.html

I'm not micing - I just want it to sound that way, as impossible as that might be - lol...

Pinstripes probably would be a good starting point.

What about ebony's and powerstroke 4's though?

Anyone used those?

OK, I think it's my resonant heads - in order to get them to the same pitch as what I can use with the batter heads, by that point they get loose and they get that "out of tune" crap tone.

Tune them up and they sound great, just not the pitch I want =/

Tune your reso heads a bit higher than your batter heads, not the same pitch.

Also you may want to try a 2 ply coated batter and a 1 ply clear reso combination sometime.

Yeah, I'm throwing a cart together on MF at the moment...lol

Going to go all Evans - the coated "pinstripe" version they have seems appealing, though I'll lean towards coated. I've always liked the look at feel of coated - lol. Yeah, I'm weird...

Now it's a matter of the reso heads - thicker single, or a two ply?

Also, thanks for the tip. I'll give that a shot.

THe 8, 10, and 12 are pretty close the 14 and 16 I'm having trouble with.

Okay, guys, brace yourselves!......are you all sitting down?....I have the sound you're looking for, on my Pearl kit....

12-13-16 toms.....stock reso, tuned slightly higher than the batters...

and...(surely i can get a drum roll?)...the batters on my toms are...Evans Hydraulics..the clear, not blue or black....

you might like....i love them...we play all classic rock, some 80's mixin' in a bit of 90's and...newer stuff

I'm trying to avoid hydra's if I can

for the love of god, please dont get pinstripes.

+1 along with cheesadiddle on tuning the resos a little higher than the batters.

I would shy away from using any type of 2 ply head as resos. You might try some Evans J1 Etched resos. They should give a nice warm sound with 2 ply batter heads.

Hey, aqua. I recommended something other than Remo's to someone. Aren't you proud?

Me? I'm sticking to Remo. Now and forever.

Originally posted by rockbeat Hey, aqua. I recommended something other than Remo's to someone. Aren't you proud? Me? I'm sticking to Remo. Now and forever.

when did this happen?

Thanks - I loaded a cart with everything then saved the webpage so I can easily add them back to the card (copy/paste part numbers) - according to my budget it'll be November, if I get a double-pedal now (creating another thread...lol)

I ended up choosing the Genera Resonant heads - figured they're named that way for a good reason

hope i'm not too late to throw in my .02...

I've found the best low growling tone from a combo of Evans G2 Clear on top and Resonant Glass on bottom. I think the clear double-ply head allows for a good low rumble without being "focussed". This is what I've used on 10121416 dws and it kills.

For a bit more focussed and damped sound, I would put pinstripes on top.

may want to look into Evans EC2...