I just got my order of hand-made ASPR LC heads in from Japan, and I'm beyond stoked. Thus far my favorite heads had been Skyntones for tone and feel, coated Ambassadors for brush work and Weather Masters for their shallow, crimp-locked collars. The ASPR LCs are like a wonderful freak combination of all of these factors, and then some.

The hoops on the heads are quite vertically narrow, maybe 75% as high as a Remo or Ludwig hoop, and they feel subjectively heavier and more rigid to me. The narrowness makes for a clean look, as a given drum's counterhoop will hide much of the head hoop. The rigid hoops, the smooth contour of the shallow collar, the beautiful Remo Renaissance-esque color/transparency of the head and the fairly subtle logo all combine to project a sense of a well-crafted, high quality product, in my opinion.

These glue-free, crimp-locked heads tune up smoothly and easily just like my beloved soon-to-be-discontinued Weather Masters. I found their tone and feel to be delightfully calf-like; I felt like they actually produced that slight rubbery grab of calf, along with the warm and harmonically mellow tones I associate with calf. I also loved the coating on these heads; they offer a much rougher surface than a standard coated Ambassador, providing for prominent brush volume, and the coating also makes it easier for me to produce evenly executed sweeps due to the deep texture. I can't say if the coating wears well over time or not, but it seems fairly hearty to me visually.

The LC heads come in two thicknesses, a 0.30mm version (just slightly thicker than Ambassador film) and a 0.25mm version (just slightly thinner than Ambassador film, notably thicker than Diplomat film). The tone that I find so delightful carries across both thicknesses, the thicker version is just a bit lower in pitch and drier in my opinion (it's very subtle).

The fit of the heads is like a standard Remo at the low end of their tolerance range. These are definitely not what you want if you're working with an oversized vintage shell.

The biggest drawback of these heads that I've discovered so far is their cost. To ship them in from Japan cost more than three times the amount I was going to pay for my previously considered Evans Calftones purchase. If they wear as well as I hope based on my initial inspections, it may not be a big deal from an amortization perspective; I've had my Skyntones forever, and I know heavy hitters have denting issues with those, so I'm apparently pretty gentle. Heads are one of the cheaper consumable items related to drumming, so I feel like these may be worth the huge premium since they're so nice. Time will tell how long they continue to produce their magic, I suppose.

Note that all these initial thoughts are based on home testing. I have a show with these tomorrow, so I'll update this based on my real world gigging experience if they perform differently than expected.

Dissertation over. :)