Great tip! I have done this in the past but I am very pleased overall with the results so far. I have band practice tomorrow so I am going to throw a head one of my snares and try it out.

For a snare it might work nice to have a single ply head with just a slightly thicker coating then normal. Control overtones a little yet have the one ply response.

UPDATE:

I have done this several more times and so far I have found one brand I prefer. Have a look a the latest results. I had an original Gretsch head that just did not come out well. The drum I bought had another reso head that was in rough but good condition. After two coats and no sanding here is the result. The decal was a die cut one that came out very well.

The one picture is with the logo in place and the other just shows the head itself.

Manny

Hey...this is great info to spruce up all those older heads...thanks to Manny & all contributors!

Anyone find a paint & color that they are happy with that looks like a VINTAGE bass drum Reso heads? An off-white, calf skin like appearance?

Bowing

Looks great, Manny!

Is the one brand you prefer Rustoleum?

My biggest question about this is how well the new paint holds up to sticks and brushes....

With sticks and brushes the paint holds up ok. I got about 3 shows (each about an hour long) and a few practice sessions on my painted snare head until it started to flake up.

Each head takes paint ok and each paint will hold with varying levels of success. For things such as reso heads it works great. For batter sides I would take it easy on the paint to keep it in good shape. Also if the paint gets un even in parts you can sand it down. Works great!

Manny

I tried it on some old heads with the Rustoleum White Textured and it worked great, as far as the look of the heads goes.

Feel, wise, they feel just like coated heads.

Haven't actually tried using any of the heads I treated, but they look just like coated heads from the factory.

I tried it on a variety of heads, including an Ebony, and you'd never know from the top that it had ever been an Ebony. Another 22" Ambassador that someone had painted a gruesome band logo on, I had hit it with some grey bumper paint just to cover it up, looks brand new now.

Seems to be useful for when you want to sell a drum, but don't have anything other than a head with worn coating that looks like hell.

Wow, never thought of this. Thanks for the great tips!

Sometimes great ideas sit right under your nose!

Perfect for making those old batter heads to new looking reso's.

I looked up Rustoleum Textured paint and found that it is not recommended for coating plastic. So can anyone tell me ... does it tend to crack and flake off near the bearing edges? I'd love to whiten up a Fiberskin reso head on my kick.

Does anyone have any updates to this old thread? How has some of the painted heads held up over time as reso and batter heads?

I used to use plain old Comet kitchen cleaner to clean up my coated heads. Used to work great. Of course sometimes the coating would go down the drain after, but Ludwig used to sell an aerosol can called "Ruff-Kote" that would put the coating back for you. Haven't had a can of that in years, but it did work great. Dent removal was easy with a hair dryer on high or a heat gun on low as well. I usually spent the time twice a year to spruce them up. Hardly ever replaced heads back in the day unless they broke through. And this was when heads seemed cheap! With the average cost of heads going up all the time, I sure wish they still had that "Ruff-Kote" available. ;)