Hydraulics give that dead studio sound of the seventies....more like a cardboard box sound. If thats the sound you 're looking for then yes, you made the right choice. If you want them to be more resonant......definately the wrong choice. I've found you can't go wrong with Aquarian super 2's as batters and single ply medium weight clears of whatever brand as resos......although currently I'm using Aquarian's Performance IIs on one of my Ludwig kits for batters......deep fat sound without a little bit of resonance...similar to Remo pinstripes.....but I use that kit for blues/r&b/funk/mowtown/soul type stuff.

My advice would be to get rid of the Evans heads and stick with the Remo coated Ambassadors all around -the exception miiiiight be with the bass drum. There, I would use a Remo Emperor with a felt strip off to one side on either the batter or the resonant side (or both). Tuned low, this is the best bass drum sound I've ever gotten from vintage bass drums. Tuned "bop" style (high), I would go with a coated Ambassador and leave it wide open (no muffling). "Fancy" drum heads that I have tried over the years have usually been disappointing (although some of them did make my drums LOOK cooler!) ;)

The general "rule" for me is that vintage drums have a vintage sound. If you want to replicate that sound, then you need to replicate the physical properties associated with the types of drumheads that were available when the drums were made. For batter and resonant heads Ludwig used coated and smooth whites that were 7.5 mil. That is equivalent to the Remo DIPLOMAT. But, playing styles have also changed and Diplomats often get dented and broken with modern drumming applications. So, the trade-off has been to use Remo coated Ambassadors (which would have been equivalent to Ludwig's older "heavy" (10 mil.) So, essentially, people have just moved it up one step, all around.

Keep in mind, you may be chasing your tail with drumheads if you are looking for "more reverberation", as you stated. Drumheads will definitely have an effect there, too, but there are other factors -such as the shape of the drum's bearing edges and the thickness of the shell...and how much hardware is attached to the shell...and on and on and on!Burger Kin

In short, if you go into the local drum shop and see (for example) a Pork Pie drum set sitting there and you tap on the floor tom and you hear, "BWHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm....(40 seconds later the tone finally stops!) -then you won't get that same sound from a 1960's Ludwig drum -no matter what kind of drumheads you put on it.Burger Kin Not only that, but Ludwig and many other companies back then added tone controls to muffle the drums if they were reverberating too much! Times change!

Even a 89 rocker kit? These guys are wide open, with no sound control rings or felt pad dampener like in a snare drum. But I am in the process of exchanging the hydraulics with G2's on top and G1's on the bottom.

Most of the 6-ply Ludwigs were ordered without tone controls, but some were fitted because they were ordered that way.......if yours don't have them that is pretty much the norm by then. Most Rockers/Rocker IIs did not have mufflers, but that's mainly because by then a lot of drummers were using pinstripes or silver/black dots or powerstroke heads.....something that had a built in muffling device anyway. My 89 classic maples are wide open with no muffling, but I use Aquarian Performance IIs on them to control them more....very similar to a pinstripe head. But.....this is the sound I like to hear out of them for the type of gigs I use them for.

You should be ok with the new combo of G2s over G1s.....they will sound good, but if you feel they are a bit too open sounding to your liking you could always use a bit of moongel to tame them if you feel the need. Esier to muffle a head than it is to unmuffle a pre-muffled one....right? :D