Oh man... I finally realize that what my ears have told me for years is actually accurate..... I'm not crazy!

I started playing drums about 15 years ago on a set of Sunlite Challenge... Not vintage, not interesting. Typical decent Taiwan starters... I tried many a head and I couldn't get it to sound or tune right... Especially on that 13" tom.. every head had a wrinkle somewhere that wouldn't come out. I finally put some ATTACK heads on it, thinking that if it's going to sound crummy, it may as well do it on a budget... But oddly enough, it sounded good with the Attacks... So I kept looking around and Ludwig's Weather Master head had a similar build with heavier films, so I tried those... They worked too. After that, I've been a die hard Ludwig head guy...

I now have a set of Ludwigs (classic maple, 10 years old)..... and I've always used the Ludwig heads on them.. I love the toms sustains and rolls, and they are just plain durable. At the time they used 10mil plys on the heavy 1 ply... Everyone else's thickest 1 ply was 7.5mil... That's since changed. Anything else I've put on them didn't quite "open up" as well.

As I posted earlier, I got this Sonor set not so long ago... I went with Remos for it, and it worked well... I figured, hey, they came with those new, may as well try it. I was reading a review from the era they were made... and I was shocked to see.....

[COLOR="Red"]As I've said before, all Sonor wood shells are made deliberately slightly undersize relative to head diameter This affords a timpani-type head seating when the counter hoop, with the head collar inside it, doesn't touch the shell, so I feel it gives a clearer sound. This way the only head contact point becomes the bearing edge which, as I said, is very slight.[/COLOR]

That was quoted from the article... so I had a look see at my Lugwigs...and it's Ludwig heads... It's the same way... The head only touches the shell at the bearing edge! No wonder these things worked so well. The collars on the Ludwig heads and the attack heads are a little smaller, placing the films away from touching the shell, making the only contact point the bearing edge!!!

I'm pleased I now have some physics to explain what I liked soooo much about the sound of my drums with Ludwig heads. The Sonors will work with anything, but I've found that pretty much every drum likes the Ludwigs.... or the attacks.

In retrospect, I had troubles getting many heads (Remo, Aquarian) to fit my old Sunlite kick drum too... Same monkey shine......

Although I feel it's a little "disrespectful" I'm thinking on throwing the Ludwig heads on the Sonors... but I've got many miles of playing before we're ready for that.

All this can be summed up in one sentence. "The way the rims are crimped on a Ludwig head allows them to fit the drum better than any competitor I've found".