Emerpors on batter and ammassadors on the re coateda couple of felt strips n the bass drum one on each side and you are back to stock and good sounds.. enjoy Rogers IO are the best ever...

What he said or Coated Ambassadors top and bottom for toms, top for snare, and batter for bass. Clear Ambassador for snare side head. If the bass drum reso will have a logo, I prefer a shiny white Ambassador.

I have to agree with emperors on batter and ambassadors on reso side. But if you want to open it up a bit, go with ambassadors on both sides. As to other heads, I've tried some fiberskyns and they sound good, but it is hard to beat that ambassador/emperor combos. That's why so many people use it.

Thanks, folks. And do you reckon I should bother with the Vintage series Emperors and Ambassadors, or just stick to the standard series? Also, leedybdp, is there much of a tonal difference between coated and shiny bass resos, or is it more of an aesthetic preference?

My suggestion would be to only work on your 13" first. It is an easy size drum to tune (assuming the bearing edges are good and the drum is in round of course) and it is also small enough that the heads will not be too expensive. I think most all will agree that a single ply reso head is in order. Based on your description (which was wonderful by the way) a coated single ply will do the trick and would probably be considered to be period correct. Then, experiment with a few options on the batter. 13" heads won't break the bank. Get that sounding the way you like and then duplicate on the 16". There are lots of head options out there but it is tough to beat the 1 ply top and bottom or the 2 ply batter 1 ply reso combination. You can be a little more articulate with the single ply batter head.

For the snare, a coated Ambassador would have been pretty typical and often a good choice. Perhaps try a coated Emperor for a little darker tone. You might find that you like the Evans Genera Dry HD heads. They are really articulate and, as the name implies, they do dry the drum out in a good way.

Kick drums are always a big question mark for me. If you are playing live in an amplified environment with microphones, that is one thing. If you are entirely acoustic, that is something else. I think I will stay out of that part of the conversation as people get their feathers ruffled a bit when I discuss this.

:)

Nice to see someone mention the Canterbury scene. Going for a Pip Pyle sound? The heads I've found most to my liking are Aquarian Modern Vintage. Not to be confused with the Aquarian American Vintage. They're very close to coated Ambassadors, only a touch dryer. I use them on all my kits, and they sound good - yet different - on each kit. YMMV.

Good luck.

Stephen

It's all aesthetic as far as I'm concerned. It may not be true, but I think that the shiny heads available today seem to be heavier than the coated heads, and often do not need a felt strip to dampen them. I do most of my bass drum "tuning" with the reso head, and keep my batter head fairly tightly tensioned. My reso head usually is slightly tighter than just removing the wrinkles.

Yep! That and Soft Machine. Big Robert Wyatt and John Marshall fan.

@tnsquint: I checked out the HD Drys on the Evans website; sounds pretty close to what I'm after so thanks for directing my attention there. Yeah, bass drums are tough. There's certainly an art to them. I can't say I've ever been truly happy with the sounds of my basses over the years, so I think that's what I'll be focussing my efforts on most (but what a pain it is that the drum that requires the most experimentation with is also the largest and most expensive to buy heads for!).

Thanks again for the feedback, guys. I have a clearer idea in my head now of what I should get.

I tried the Vintage Ambassadors and they sort of sucked the life out of the toms of my 9/72 Black Strata kit drums so I switched to coated Ambassadors for batters with clear Ambassadors on the resonant side. They sound nice! You can always grab a piece of Moongel to damped just a bit if you need to. I'd imagine the Emperors would be cool too, to darken the tone and/or you're a heavier hitter.

I have a clear Remo Powerstroke 3 with an Evans EQ3 resonant on my bass drum which sounds nice. Both heads have a little muffling built in, just enough.

I'm a believer in keeping drums a bit on the "open" side and adding muffling if need be, from situation to situation.