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Looking
at New Heads for Your Kit?
By: Megan E. Thomas
New
heads for your kit can drastically change the sound you are
getting from your drums. Let us examine a few different types
of heads out on the market and what they can do for your sound.
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Remo,
Evans, Attack, and Aquarian are the main head manufacturers
in existence. They, for the most part, have heads that are
equivalent to one another. Let's take the single ply head
(Ambassador, Classic Clear, G1, etc.) A single ply head is
going to give you a longer sustain and allow more of the sound
of the drum to come through. Now if you need something a little
more durable for your toms, take a look at a double ply head.
A double ply head used on the top with single ply on the bottom
will still give you a decent amount of sustain. The drum is
a little more controlled and may not be the best choice head
for low volume gigs. There are, of course, heads available
with a reinforcement dot in the center. These heads come in
single and double ply variations. They give you almost the
same type of sound as their partner with no reinforcement
dot but a tiny bit more control and slight bit less sustain.
They just give you longevity. After those heads you would
be looking at a double ply with a ring built into the head.
You could look at the ever popular Pinstripe head for example.
These heads have the muffle ring in between the two plies
and gives you way less sustain. The heads are durable but
don't give you much of a "voice" from your toms.
If you want little sustain and hit hard you might like these
heads. They produce a thick, short, dry sound. The most durable
of the drum set heads for toms would be the hydraulic heads
that Evans makes. The hydraulic heads are two plies with oil
in between the plies. One may think that the pinstripe has
oil in between but it is just air that is in between the two
plies because of the space the muffle ring takes up. The only
head on the market with oil in between the plies is the Evans
hydraulic. This head produces very, very little sustain. The
sound is thick, wet, and short. The heads will last longer
but are not a very versatile head. One should first decide
what type of sound is wanted from the drums as well as taking
into consideration the style/ styles that are being played
on the set.
There
are other heads out on the market that fall in between some
of the heads discussed but this gives a brief overview on
heads in general. The best way to decide what you need for
your own sound and drum set is by starting with a general
idea of what you are going for and then experimenting. The
best lessons are learned through experience. Choose your head
and then make sure that you use the same type of single ply
head on the bottom and use the same tuning relationship (batter
head lower than resonant head). This way you are really testing
each type of head. Good luck and have fun!
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Megan
Thomas, percussionist from Chicago, is an
active performer and teacher. She currently plays
percussion with Chicago-land's premier steel drum
band, OD TAPO IMI (www.odtapoimi.com),
as well as playing drum set with an all original rock
band from Chicago called Reptoids (www.reptoids.net).
She has played in numerous bands over the years, opening
up for acts ranging from Jimmy Buffet to Evil Beaver
to Foreigner to Johnny Clegg while playing in venues
from House of Blues to Alpine Valley to The Park West.
She has experience in a plethora of musical genres:
latin, pop, rock, blues, punk, fusion, latin-jazz,
salsa, world, folk, soca, calypso, classical, etc.
In addition to being an active performer, she plays
sessions at recording studios, performs with jobbing
bands, puts on world percussion seminars, facilitates
drum circles, writes for freemusiceducation.com
and chicagomusicguide.com,
and teaches private lessons at North Shore Music Institute.
Megan
Thomas
www.myspace.com/mtpercussion
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