What drum heads should I buy?

BigBoiz55 · Little Guppy Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 35

Hey guys.. I want to get new drum heads for my Tama Starclassic Performer because it only has the stock heads on. What heads should I buy? I want my toms to be pingy so something single ply and I want my bass to have a nice, big heart-pounding thump. I always see bytor talking about how aquarian heads are so amazing... Will Aquarian Studio-X heads be good for my toms for a nice pingy sound or are they too dull and punchy? Should I go for pinstripes or something? For my bass drum I know you guys are probably going to say Aquarian Superkick or Evans Emad, Which would be better? I dont think im going to buy any new bottom heads from my toms or a new front head for my bass drum, just all new heads on the side you hit on. Please help me out, Thanks!

Premier · Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 5:20 am Post subject:

If by pingy you mean sustain or ring, I would try Evans Genera g2 clears on the tops of your toms, they are 2 ply. On the bottoms Evans resonant single ply heads. I have these on my 5 piece kit and the ring nicely.
On the kick drum I have an Aquarian super kick ll. It's ok but a little to dead for my liking.

On my big kit I have Aquarian performance ll on the tops of my toms and classic clears on the bottoms. These heads give me less ring, or sustain and a warmer sound then the evans do. On the kick drums I have evans EQ3 heads. These sound fantastic, warm punchy sound with a bit of sustain. These heads let you hear the sound of the drum shell more then the super kicks do in my opinion.

There now you can get even more confused.

PS: I used to use remo pinstrips on the tops of my toms on both kits. I would describe the sound of those heads to be in between the sustaining attack of the evans G2's, and the more mellow warmth of the Aquarian performance ll's. Pinstripe's are right in the middle.

bytor · Admin Joined: 12 Aug 2003 Posts: 5260 Location: Kansas

From the sound you want, I would definitely go with single-ply heads for your toms. If you want really pingy, go with Aquarian Classic Clears on top (or Evans G1s or Remo Ambassadors), but naturally, I'm going to recommend Aquarian Studio-Xs. Yes, they have a built-in dampening ring to control overtones, but it should be understood that this ring does NOT eliminate resonance. The drums will still sing very nicely. They just won't have that annoying ring after the inherent resonance of the drums fades out.

For the bass drum, Aquarian Superkick all the way. Probably the most popular model is the Superkick II. It's double-ply and very high quality. They sound great. I would recommend that you go ahead and get an Aquarian Regulator for the front of the bass drum, as well. I know it's more money, but those two heads in combination are fantastic.