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Thread: When to replace batter heads?

  1. #1

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    Default When to replace batter heads?

    I've been changing them when they start getting dented badly (not sure if they should do that) I've never had one break just get dented so bad I can't tune it. I'm going to be changing my snare and a tom batter head soon(EC2 on the tom coated Evans genera dry on snare) but help me out here, when do you guys change them, and am I doing something wrong.
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  2. #2

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    Hard to say whether you are doing anything wrong just by you stating there are dents in the heads. It can be said that you hit the skins hard to be causing dents. There are a couple possible answers that come to mind. One, you hit hard- obvious. The other is how the stick it striking the head- technique.

    As far as when to change there are a lot of drummers that have different opinions. Certainly when they become dented or break they should be changed. But also some change their heads more often from use if they are gigging a lot or just as a rule of thumb every 6 months or once a year… other than breaking or denting it may be a personal decision.
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  3. #3

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    I agree 6 months is about right. Dented could be old heads or heads to loose. Try tighten them up a little. As for EC2's on the toms is a great choice. You should try Evans EC frosted with reverse dot on the snare. Those two combinations work welll together.

  4. #4

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    I replace my heads when I can no longer tune them. As for dents youre tuning to low and hitting to hard. You want deep low sounds buy big drums. They are drums a musical insturment, you want a punching bag go to a gym.

  5. #5

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    You are hitting incredibly hard if you are denting 2 ply heads. Yikes
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  6. #6

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    I replace mine when I get sick of them, or when they don't sound good any more. I use 2 different kits for practice and gigs so my gig kit doesn't see much action. We only gig about 1x a month on average so my heads stay decent for a while.

    I just took a set of Black Chromes off and replaced them with fresh coated G2s b/c I don't care for the sound of the BC. The G2 is just more my flavor, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Black Chromes that came off. Still have a ton of life in them.

  7. #7

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    When I was gigging and recording all of the time, I was changing heads every few weeks. At the time, I was a pretty heavy hitter, not any more though.

    If you find you are denting up the heads pretty badly, you can always try to angle the drums where the head is more "flat" or parallel with the ground. If mine are angled a lot, I find it easier to knock dents in them.

    Hope this helps.

  8. #8

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    I use two-ply heads, and a fairly hard hitter, but I haven't been denting heads lately. You may wanna check your angles of your toms, your snare head especially should have no dents in it whatsoever.

    Anyways, some people claim every 6 months for the batters and a year for resos, other say 6 months for both. Some say when they get dents, some say when they can't get a good tone out of them anymore. I got my X7's two years, and I'm just now changing the stock heads off of them. The stocks had 2 years on them, and they could still get a good tone, had no dents what so ever, and barely any stick marks on them. And they got played on average 5 days a week every week. Maybe I'm just not as hard as a hitter as I think, i don't know, but I guess it depends from person to person, and how much they care about their sound.
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  9. #9

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    Default Re: When to replace batter heads?

    Show us a picture of your set-up. Maybe that would help us out in determining what you might possibly be doing wrong. Extreme tom angles, loose tuning, and hitting them harder than is needed, like has been said already, along with chipped up, with pieces missing stick tips, are usually the culprits. Good luck.
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  10. #10

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    The angle of the drum relative to the floor means nothing. The drum doesnt care if its set up at 90° to the floor.

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Northern Redneck View Post
    The angle of the drum relative to the floor means nothing. The drum doesnt care if its set up at 90° to the floor.
    If the drum is at too steep of an angle, and you are a hard hitter, (like he said he was) then it is a lot more likely that the drum head will dent from the tip of the stick and the angle it comes into the head.
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by imperialstar15 View Post
    If the drum is at too steep of an angle, and you are a hard hitter, (like he said he was) then it is a lot more likely that the drum head will dent from the tip of the stick and the angle it comes into the head.
    The only thing that matters is the angle of the stick relative to the head at the point of impact. The drums angle to the floor is 100% irrelavent.

  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Northern Redneck View Post
    The only thing that matters is the angle of the stick relative to the head at the point of impact. The drums angle to the floor is 100% irrelavent.
    No because if the drum angle to the floor is too steep, then angle of the stick relative to the head will be too steep. The angle of the drum is relevant, because the angle of the stick to the drum is dependent on the angle of the drum to the floor. If you change the angle of the drum to the floor, the angle of the stick to the drum will change. Assuming you don't change the way you play with your drumsticks. Their not two independent things. If you put the stick on the tom head you'll see that where the stick and head meet it makes an angle. Now if you change the angle of the drum, the point where the stick and head meet will make a new angle.

    There's math behind it too. The angle of the drum to the floor is an independent variable or we can call it X. The angle of the stick to the drum is a dependent variable which we'll call Y. Let's say you measured X (the angle of the drum to the floor) as a 45 degree angle. Because of this 45 degree angle, the angle of the stick to the drum, or Y, is measured out as a 40 degree angle. This means the difference of the two angles would be 5 degrees. This can be put into an equation as Y=X-5. If X(the angle of the drum to the floor, or the independent variable), is 45. Then the equation becomes Y=45-5. This means Y=40. It's called a linear model with negative correlation. This means that as X decreases, Y decreases. So let's say then that X(the angle of the drum to the floor) is 30 degrees. Then the equation is Y=30-5. Therefore Y (angle of the stick to the drum) is 25 degrees. I will plot these two equations, plus two more equations on a graph to show you the how they relate.

    Last edited by imperialstar15; 11-19-2013 at 09:35 AM.
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  14. #14

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    Nice reply and illustration.

  15. #15

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    I have been using the same tom heads for close to two years now . They look like crap (stick marks) but still sound okay. They are the Aquarian Response II's. I have been shopping around but haven't come to a decison yet on what I want to replace them with. I will stay with Aquarian though.
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  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by slinky View Post
    I have been using the same tom heads for close to two years now . They look like crap (stick marks) but still sound okay. They are the Aquarian Response II's. I have been shopping around but haven't come to a decison yet on what I want to replace them with. I will stay with Aquarian though.
    Have you played other brand tom heads? If so, how do they compare to the Aquarians? It seems you like them, I've never played an Aquarian head before,just wondering if they're any good
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by imperialstar15 View Post
    No because if the drum angle to the floor is too steep, then angle of the stick relative to the head will be too steep. The angle of the drum is relevant, because the angle of the stick to the drum is dependent on the angle of the drum to tyhe floor. If you change the angle of the drum to the floor, the angle of the stick to the drum will change. Assuming you don't change the way you play with your drumsticks. Their not two independent things. If you put the stick on the tom head you'll see that where the stick and head meet it makes an angle. Now if you change the angle of the drum, the point where the stick and head meet will make a new angle.

    There's math behind it too. The angle of the drum to the floor is an independent variable or we can call it X. The angle of the stick to the drum is a dependent variable which we'll call Y. Let's say you measured X (the angle of the drum to the floor) as a 45 degree angle. Because of this 45 degree angle, the angle of the stick to the drum, or Y, is measured out as a 40 degree angle. This means the difference of the two angles would be 5 degrees. This can be put into an equation as Y=X-5. If X(the angle of the drum to the floor, or the independent variable), is 45. Then the equation becomes Y=45-5. This means Y=40. It's called a linear model with negative correlation. This means that as X decreases, Y decreases. So let's say then that X(the angle of the drum to the floor) is 30 degrees. Then the equation is Y=30-5. Therefore Y (angle of the stick to the drum) is 25 degrees. I will plot these two equations, plus two more equations on a graph to show you the how they relate.

    None of that matters, as as long as the player strikes the drum in a way that the stick hits the drum properly, the drum can be at any angle.

    Please instead of getting all up in arms, and then wasting your time with these big long explanations, slowly read what I said.

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Northern Redneck View Post
    None of that matters, as as long as the player strikes the drum in a way that the stick hits the drum properly, the drum can be at any angle.

    Please instead of getting all up in arms, and then wasting your time with these big long explanations, slowly read what I said.

    If you read what i said there should be one sentence in that big long explanation that says "Assuming you don't change the way you play with your drumsticks" Because, if the drum is at an extreme angle, you would most likely have to change your natural stick motion in order to properly hit the drum. Instead, what I personally believe you should do, is keep your natural stick motion that your arms naturally want to take, and adjust your drum angle in order to get the proper hit.

    I'm not getting all up in arms, but I felt like if I didn't put that explanation which proves my point, then further disagreement would've continued on the topic.
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  19. #19

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    You can dent heads, even if you're not hitting hard. If the tip of your stick is chipped, you can dent a head without much effort at all.
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  20. #20

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    Do Not get the EC2 Tom heads! Evans replaced my first set after the black sound control "ring" on the underside of each batter head flaked apart. The replacement set is currently flaking apart even faster! I have to vacuum the black flakes and clean the shells before mounting new batter heads.
    My coated Aquarians are way better!
    Last edited by slinglander; 11-19-2013 at 03:41 PM. Reason: Added comment
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  21. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by imperialstar15 View Post
    If you read what i said there should be one sentence in that big long explanation that says "Assuming you don't change the way you play with your drumsticks" Because, if the drum is at an extreme angle, you would most likely have to change your natural stick motion in order to properly hit the drum. Instead, what I personally believe you should do, is keep your natural stick motion that your arms naturally want to take, and adjust your drum angle in order to get the proper hit.

    I'm not getting all up in arms, but I felt like if I didn't put that explanation which proves my point, then further disagreement would've continued on the topic.
    So you took all that to say I was right in the first place. Thanks lol.

    Since the OP has abandoned this thread I think I will as well.

  22. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by Northern Redneck View Post
    So you took all that to say I was right in the first place. Thanks lol.

    Since the OP has abandoned this thread I think I will as well.
    It's not at all what you said in the first place....

    But its fine. There's no need to make a stupid argument. And there's no need to abandon a thread either or walk away on a bad note and be Immature about it. Were all friends here, lets keep it that way. Sometimes disagreements happen. But we don't have to turn sour because of them.
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  23. #23

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    So youre going to call me sour and immature, and then say we should be friends o_O

    Never said I was mad, I just figured the OP didnt care about this thread so why continue?

  24. #24

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    Good point, I wasn't directing the sour and immature directly towards you, or the friends thing, but in general this community should just be friendly and non-argumentative. There's always room for debate, but we should all just keep it low-key and not make it into a spiteful argument.
    Happy Drumming!

    IS15

  25. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by imperialstar15 View Post
    Have you played other brand tom heads? If so, how do they compare to the Aquarians? It seems you like them, I've never played an Aquarian head before,just wondering if they're any good
    I've used the remo pinstripes for a long time then tried some Aquarian's and liked what I was getting out of them so I decided to stay with them. They are good heads. Lots of options to choose from. *They have a catalog of videos that let you hear the differences. Here's one for the Response II's

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