Man, head choice.... wow

I've spent some time recently swapping the snot out of heads to do side by sides of a bunch of mylars and some animal skins.

My two cents (seems a bit high).....

Goat or calf batters with coated ludwig med or thin resos

or

coated ludwig heavy batters with coated ludwig med or thin resos

remo amb batters work fine, also. But, the Ludwig seem to resonate a bit better.

I agree about the fiberskyns. what are they good for then? I have seen em as reso heads. I just happen to have a set of them.

Thanks

Man, I don't have a clue what people see in those fiberskyns. They just don't respond under my stick. I've used them as resos....icky. They are WAY to unresponsive to work as resos. They are made to be tuned fairly loose which gives it a "slap the glued paper" kind of feel and a sound like wet cardboard. When you tension 'em up to add some life, they sound like ... well ... they sound bad.

I guess they would be better than plain old plastic for some jazzhead purist, but man, they really don't work.

Put them toe to toe (head to head?) with real skin and you realize just how bad they really are.

I finished on tom and put the pinstripe on top and fiberskyn on bottom, and It sounds flat. Muffled or something.

Yeah. I have never been into them personally. Thats not to say they are bad.

I have heard people play them in jazz situations on tom batters tuned up higher and liked them a lot, and I think they look/sound cool as a bass drum reso head on real old drums that might have had calf on them originally, or new drums made in that 1930's-50's style, and especially on 18 inch bass drums, but I have never liked them in a rock setting on any front. Just dont have any character when you bash on em.

I really think it is worth trying 1 ply clear reso heads with a 2 ply coated head on the batter side of the toms. Thats the combo that my 70's Ludwigs sound the best with (to my ear). Try a coated ambassador on the front of the bass drum with a felt strip and a coated emad on the batter side with the drum wide open. I am telling you....its great if you wanna rock!

Hope this helps!

-Adam

I have heard some cool sounding combination's on this so far. Im gonna print all this out and compare notes from Y'all. The fiberskyns are goin back in the closet till someday..........

For this combo, where do you prefer the felt strip to lay underneath the reso head?

Yes sir! Under the reso head. Takes just a little ringing out of that front head if you don't wanna cut a port hole. Also works fine to cut a port hole and rest a T-Shirt or any other small piece of fabric right up against the reso head if you dont have the felt.

-Adam

I agree with Adam. I think the Fiberskyns are best used on older drums.

For your set up, I think your drums would sound better with Emperors as batters and 1 ply clear bottoms. Ambassadors, G1s, Attack (very cheap online, by the way) would get you there. I've never really liked Pinstripes. I think their only real application is for a newer cheap drum or a drum that cant be tuned due to damage. They make everything sound dead, to my ears.

I have found Emperors to give a good amount of sound control and punch without deadening the drum.

Something to consider.

Felt's easy enough to get. Where do you prefer to put yours? Horizontal or vertical? Left, right, top, bottom? That kinda stuff.