But they will in 2 and 1/2 years.

Sooner, way sooner..

https://www.businessinsider.com/washington-state-human-compost-bodies-into-soil-2019-5

Living in NYC under Mayor Bill DeBlasio? Yeah, it can happen!!! Unless of course he wins the Presidency!Eye Ball

No I don't sell Mylar.

I just don't see a practical reason to move away from Mylar, unless there is a call to reduce plastics in the waste stream as they simply don't degrade well in a land fill.

So, the biggest impediment to natural hide heads is their higher cost compared to synthetic and of course the way they interact with the environment (i.e. humidity - easy to see why manufacturers first named synthetic heads Weather Master and Weather King).

Then I also wonder about the durability of natural hide heads with the average ham fisted "power" hitters of today's rock era.

if I were to play a batucada with oil bins I would probably put in a plastic head, even for heavy metal and very hard rock, but to play smooth music and soft ballads, and all traditional music including jazz the plastic head doesn't go well, you can make the same speech about durability and practicality but try to convince a bassoonist to use synthetic reeds!

Back in the day when Calf was king, every music store sold calf tucked and untucked for a reasonable price. Now that we are at least three generations into the plastic era, the low demand of calf requires a higher price than plastic. Yes, Mylar can take more punishment than calf, but I believe that if it was available during the blossoming of the Jazz age it would have still taken hold.

The things that Calf still has over Mylar is the sonic properties (more fundamental , less upper partials) and all the manufacturers have labored to produce heads that sound like calf. I find that it is also much easier to play a soft buzz roll on calf that Plastic.

I have a theory that one of the main reasons the majority of drummers struggle to this day to figure out how to tune their drums is because plastic pretty much stays where you leave it and with Calfskin, one needed to tune-up (and down) their drums daily just to practice or perform.

I think it's exactly like that, to make the same "atmosphere" of a natural sound with plastic skins you have to be very very experienced, like a fox! and you have to strain your body and stay focused continuously, in essence it is not at all pleasant

instead with the natural head any tension sounds good, not monotone, seems to auto-fit and always sounds good both at the center and at the edges, the roll is not very tiring and is pleasant and fun to touch and listen as much as a game, just like it should be the music

tellin ya Hemp!

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+strong+is+hemp%3F&oq=how+strong+is+hemp%3F&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.10676j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

seems ^^ to be strong enough; woven ya know..

vv discussed

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/index.php?threads/hemp-drums.69887/

hmm maybe no. it's a cloth

I think in reality :D Soylent Green may be just around the corner for some..

But lucky Excited I have stashed enough conventional Remo's to see me through..

Cheers

I'm not giving up my mylar heads unless something comes along that performs better than they do. Mylar heads killed calfskin because they work better.

Tuning is enough of a pain that I don't want it complicated by stretching and humidity.

Also, plastic heads have been in use my entire life, they are what drums sound like to me. My ears would have to adjust to something alien to them, as would my recording techniques. It would be like a paleo trip.

And as an aside, my use of them doesn't "harm the planet" because I'm not a heavy hitter and my Pinstripes have been on my kit for years and probably will be for years to come. I don't make dents in them, and if I did, I'd take a heat gun to them then give them to a struggling punk rock kid to replace the heinous worn out ones on their Sound Percussion set.

Moreover, drumheads as a contribution to plastic disposal problems is a miniscule spit in the ocean because there just aren't as many of them that are produced and discarded in comparison to the unknown tons of plastic that's discarded by the average American city daily.