I ran the Aquarian PII's for a long time. Not bad heads. Remember, though.. heavier heads have more mass. Once that mass is set into motion, it will take longer for it to stop. Heavier = more sustain, unless of course the heads in question have some sort of dampening material (Hydraulics, Pinstripes, etc...)

I saw a good video on YouTube, where the guy was demoing heads, back to back. At one point it was cutting in-between different shots of the same drum, with the same batter head and tuning, with only the reso head being changed out. It was very revealing. The drum had shorter sustain, with brighter overtones with the thinner reso heads, and quite the opposite with heavier heads.

I prefer matching top and bottom, both in the brand/type of head as well as the tuning. I'm running Emperors top and bottom on my floor toms right now, and at last night's gig, they (especially the 18") were really booming nicely.

I purchased a 12X8 and 13X9 Tom Toms that had only one head on each drum. They were the hydraulics, which had a very muted sound.

I put a pinstripe on the batter side and re-used the hydraulics on the bottom head and it was very effective without any tone control applied.

This was a 1980's slingerland 5 ply drum. Try that and you might get some very good results.

Holy thread resurrection!!!

Evans used to come in red all those years ago. I had red Hydraulics.

Evans are suitable for a sound from a bygone era- the over-padded Eagles sound!!!

I was having such problems with tuning my Chinese OCDP kit that Evans were the only solution, and they just sounded dead.

However- they are great for single-headed drums. They are even better for converting a 16" floor tom into a kick drum. I think they would be horrible, however, on Octobans.

I like what JonRpick mentioned here of using the same type of heads top and bottom. I often use coated Ambassadors top and bottom for regular use drums and like that sound a lot.

Re-reading through this thread - I wanted to clarify that I like hydraulics for certain types of playing I have to do- one genre in particular is very tight controlled modern R&B some people call "Rimshot" - similar to a lot of Erykah Badu or D'Angelo material- super controlled stuff, drum n' bass, or even jazz in a small room- hydraulics are easy on the ears of the audience.

With that said - I grow tired of it and certainly don't use them all the time. A set is good to have on hand I'd say.

Maybe I need to experiment with Hydraulics again. I need to listen to some examples...

I agree! LoLoLoLo

Well...on the particular kit in question, I ended up trying a few different combos....in the end I put Ludwig Silver Dot Weathermaster heads on the batters and Heavy Clears on the reso sides. Tuned low, they come pretty close to the sound I as after......

i tried a set on a old pearl kit and no bottoms the sound was very deep and i played on them for a long time i had no problem using them on cheapo drums

I have said time and time again that Evans Hydraulics are SPECTACULAR for hard-to-tune drums. My best sound from those AWFUL Chinese-made OCDP's was an Evans Hydraulic on the batter and NOTHING on the reso...

Does anyone know what kind of heads Mick used in the studio back then? I know I read an article long ago that said he changed his heads after every take. I bet he used single ply coated heads and had them tuned low. The song Dreams was my favorite from that album. I know I used to have Ludwig Weather Master coated heavy on my Slingerland drums and they got that sound with both heads on the floor tom. Those are great heads. A little different sounding than Remo Ambassadors. That was with the bottom heads resonating and the top head tuned just above a wrinkle. It gives you a flat, low fundamental pitch that kicks you in the stomach.